Untitled
by waiting4thefairytale
Summary: Max deals with the anniversary of Tinga's death alongside the helping hands of her friends, Zack, and her family.  As time goes one, secrets of Max's are revealed. With Zack and Max's relationship last as they start to unravel? What's up with Logan?
1. Chapter 1

I remember how Zack used to stay up with me at Manticore. When we couldn't sleep, we would crawl into one of each other's beds and just talk about anything and everything. It's kind of weird how we formed a relationship like that. Then when we broke out and we all went our separate ways, I thought I lost him. I remember feeling that hole in my heart that made me just want to crawl up in a ball and lay there for days. It wasn't until I moved on with my life that he waltzed back in.

Sam, he posed as. I let out a laugh and shook my head. I sat there at the junky coffee joint with him- staring at his face and I never once noticed. It wasn't until I found out where he was staying and put the pieces together that I knew the real him.

From then, we had the on and off heartbreak. Him thinking all I wanted to do was stay in Seattle for Logan, while me thinking he was always just going to be about the mission. I guess in a way, we were both right though. Zack hurt me the first time he left, so I began finding support and trust in Logan, while Zack was trying to keep his focus on the safety of all of us instead of his emotions and feelings for me.

I let out a snicker when my thoughts continued to drift.

"What was that noise for?" A voice asked behind me, wrapping a pair of arms around my waist.

"I was thinking about that time in Logan's cabin- when my face was plastered all over Seattle..." I said with a smile.

He let out a small sound, which I was not sure if it was a laugh or a sigh.

"You came and saved my ass and then we headed to Logan's cabin."

At the mention of Logan's name, Zack held his grip on me a bit tighter. Rubbing my hands over his arms that encased me, I tilted my head up to smile at him.

"You told me that we could rest for a night, and pulled out some wine to celebrate me finally leaving Seattle," I said with a bit of drama in my voice. A smile began to appear on his lips.

"Then you finally let me in the mind of a leader; well… a bit," I smirked. "You brushed a strand of my hair away from my face, and we almost kissed."

"If only I made the move then," Zack sighed, kissing my temple.

"The wait was worth it I guess," I said looking back out the window. It was dark and rainy. Pretty beautiful out there…

"Food's here," he murmured disturbing my thoughts.

"'kay," I smiled, pulling my arms away from his.

"You comin'?" he asked pulling at one of my hands.

"I'll be there in a minute," I told him with a smile and then turned back to the window. Letting my hand drop he walked off and I was alone again. It was crazy how we both got here- finally here.

I guess in a way Tinga's visit and death didn't go down in vein. She brought Zack and I together and gave us the motivation to take down Manticore.

"Love you girl," I whispered.

* * *

><p>Zack and I ate our Chinese food together as we watched some sci fi movie on TV.<p>

"See, now that a power I would like to have" I told Zack, watching this girl do cool things with her eyes.

"Shoot fire through my eyes, x-ray vision, blow things up…that could be useful," I told my boyfriend as I picked at my Lo mein.

"I think you are pretty useful already, don't you think? Being a human super soldier counts for something right?" he asked as he used his chopsticks to steal some of my noodles.

"Hey!" I laughed, pulling away my food from his reach. He shot me a smile and then dropped the noodles in his mouth. Sitting back up, I carefully leaned over him and stole a piece of his sweet and sour chicken with my chopstick.

"Its fair," I laughed before he could try and attack me.

The phone rang and I quickly evaded Zack by getting up off the couch.

Laughing at him, I walked over to the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey Boo its me."

"Hey OC what's up?" I asked.

"We are all meeting at Crash in about an hour, wanna come?" Original Cindy asked.

"Sure sounds good." I told her.

"Alright then, see you soon girl."

Putting the phone back in its place, I walked over to Zack and plopped down on the couch.

"That was OC, she wanted to know if we were game for Crash."

"What time do we have to be there?"

"'Bout an hour," I told him as I laid my head on his shoulder. His arm came around me and we snuggled together. When we were both done with our Chinese food, I went to go take a shower while Zack cleaned up dinner. Turning on the stereo, I let the music play as I made my way into the bathroom. When I was done, I quickly dried off and opened the door to let Zack take a quick shower.

It was perfect timing I guess- he was walking into the bedroom as I was waking out of the bathroom.

"Go shower," I laughed as his eyes roamed my toweled body.

"You're right, those superpowers like x-ray vision could come in handy right now."

My jaw jokingly dropped and I shoved him lightly into the bathroom. While he was in there, I put on some light makeup, did my hair and went to pick out something to wear. I ended up picking out a short glittery top and a short black skirt. Not my usual, but hey, things can change.

"Ready?" I asked Zack as I came back into the bedroom. He gave me another look over and cleared his throat.

"Yea lets go."

With a hand on my lower back, he guided me through Crash to get to our table.

* * *

><p>"Hey girl," OC said giving me a hug.<p>

"Hey," I smiled.

"Zack," Original Cindy acknowledged with slight smile. She knew Zack was a great guy, a bit problematic and hot headed when it came to Logan, but she said he had good intentions.

I gave hugs to Sketchy and Herbal and listened to everything. Both of them unfortunately had to work overtime since they mixed up packages.

"I need more beer," Sketchy exclaimed.

"I believe it's my turn to buy," I told them all, hopping off my stool and to the bar.

Zack watched me go and I gave him a nod.

As I waited for the pitcher, my pager went off. Looking at it, I sighed and found it was Logan. Bringing the alcohol back, I gave them all a look. I held up my pager and they all looked disappointed.

"Tell me it ain't him Boo," Original Cindy said frustrated.

"It'll be quick," I said giving them all a sympathetic look. Glancing over at Zack I found him slightly pissed.

"Be back," I said and then went to find a pay phone. It was at the side of the bar that I found one and called the well known number.

"Hey stranger," he said.

"Logan, what is it? Im kinda busy." I said.

"Just wanted to say happy anniversary- for Tinga I mean."

Sadness washed over me and I sighed. Happy was not the word.

"It wasn't your fault Max," he said. My jaw clenched as I remember holding a dead Tinga in my arms. "There was nothing we could do," he added.

"Was there something you needed Logan?" I asked.

"Think you can stop by later?" he wondered.

"I don't think so. Busy."

"Right, that's okay. Next time."

"Yea, maybe," I said softly, "Bye Logan."

Hanging up the phone I bit my lip. The memories hit me and the weight of Tinga's body made my arms feel heavy.

It was hard to believe it was a year ago that I lost my sister- and her son lost his mother. Reminding myself that, I made sure that I would check up on them later.

"Hey, you okay?" Zack asked, surprising me with his presence.

"Hey, yea," I tried smiling, but I knew he could see past it. "I'm going to get some air okay?" I told him moving out of the club, before he could even respond.

Once I was outside it was like I could breathe again. Leaning against the brick wall, I crossed my arms and wished the feeling of Tinga's heavy body to go away.

"Its Tinga isn't it?" Zack asked coming to stand in front of me. Only he would be persistent enough to follow me out here.

"Yea," I let out. Sighing, he stepped forward, taking me in his arms and holding me close. I held onto him, letting all the memories and visions cloud over my mind. Pulling myself together, I pulled back a bit, now resting my forehead against his chest.

"You okay now?" he asked kissing the top of my head. I nodded, glancing up at him to flash him the smallest of small smiles. Taking it as a good sign he grazed his thumb down my lips and to my chin.

"Good," he breathed. Finding him mesmerizing, I tiled my head up and waited for his lips to descend on mine. Our lips brushed lightly against each other a few times, giving each other small kisses. It wasn't until my hands slid up to his neck that he began deepening the kiss. His tongue slid gently into my mouth and we both explored our feelings.

The sound of a door shutting hard startled us both. We quickly pulled away from each other and blushed. "We should get back in there," I smiled, still a bit bewildered.

"Right," Zack breathed, gathering his own composure. Taking my hand, he opened the door and I led us back inside.

* * *

><p>"Took you guys long enough," Sketchy commented. Herbal and OC just snickered and passed me a wink. After a few hours, Zack went off with Sketchy to play some foosball while Herbal took off.<p>

"So what did Mr. Money bucks have to say?" OC questioned.

"He wanted to give his condolences to Tinga's death."

Original Cindy raised an eyebrow and let her mind wander.

"What did you say?"

"Thank you. I let him ramble on about how her death wasn't my fault and these things just happen- that there was nothing we could do."

"I see," she said shaking her head at the situation. "Sometimes, I don't know how you don't punch the man, or at least let your buff and tough over there, kick his ass."

I let out a chuckle and turned my head to see Zack in an intense game of foosball with Sketchy.

"I know he wants to, but it wouldn't do any good."

"It would do good for me- and your boy toy. It would give us some piece of mind," Original Cindy commented.

"You think he's gunna try and make another move on you again the next time you go over there?" OC asked.

"He better not or I **will** kick his ass."

OC smiled and put her fist up to hit mine. "There you go girl, that's the spirit."

I let my smile take over my face and was about to say more until an arm slid around my waist.

"Who won?" I asked turning my attention over to the face beside me.

"Who do you think?" Zack grinned.

"Better luck next time Sketch," OC said, patting him on the back.

"So what were you ladies talking about?" Zack asked grabbing the stool next to me.

Looking at Original Cindy, we both shrugged.

"Nothing big," I said and drank some beer.

"Right," Sketchy said, looking between the two of us. OC skipped the subject for us and we were back to silly nonsense.

* * *

><p>"So…" Zack said, swinging our hands between us as we walked home.<p>

"Yes?" I asked.

"I was thinking," he started.

"Uh oh, that's never good," I teased. Pulling our entwined hands closer to his body; I let my body collide against his.

"Cute," he commented, looking down at me with those piercing eyes of his. Unable to resist the urge, I brought my free hand to his neck and let our lips met. When I pulled away, I felt a sense of pride as I saw his eyes still closed as if he was savoring the moment.

"So you were saying…"

"Right," he said clearing his throat to pull himself together. "It's been a hard week, and I know things have been difficult…"

I arched my eyebrow. I was not a girl with patience. Apparently Manticore did not teach that.

"I have a surprise for you tomorrow night, but you have to promise me you will be home."

"Why?" I asked suspiciously.

"Because if you're not home then the surprise wont be very good," he said with a light attitude.

Stickling out my tongue, he gave my sides a squeeze and I let out a small giggle.

"Okay, I'll be there."

"Promise?" he tried to confirm.

"Promise," I smiled and moved to continue walking.

* * *

><p>The next day came and I was super curious to what Zack had in store. He had left early this morning, giving me a quick kiss and a smirk, as I got ready for work.<p>

The whole day at Jam Pony I couldn't help but think of what he could be up to. I think OC was ready to strangle me, but hey, I was curious.

By the time I got home from work it was around 5 and still no sign from Zack. Was 5 o'clock considered nighttime?

Setting my stuff down, I went to the fridge in hunt for something to eat. Hearing my pager beep, I hopped off the counter top and walked over to my bag. Logan. It read.

Sighing, I walked over to the phone and called the man.

"Max," he said.

"Yea Logan, what's up?"

"I have a mission for you. Its top priority and needs to be done ASAP."

"I cant tonight Logan," I said with a bit of annoyance.

"Did you not hear me Max? This is important."

"Yea well, I have important things that need to be done,"

"Look," Logan sighed, "It umm…it has to do with the Taliban and they are planning this attack so we have to get this piece of equipment tonight or…or they could sell this stuff to the wrong people."  
>Sighing, I checked the time and gave in. "Fine, I'll be at your place in a few."<p>

Quickly I slammed the phone down and fisted my hands. That man. Calling Zack was going to be hard. Letting out all my anger with a breath, I dialed his cell and waited for him to pick up.

"Hey," he answered.

"You're going to hate me," I muttered.

"You're breaking your promise aren't you?" he guessed.

"I'm here," I supplied, "but Logan just called saying he needed me to do a mission. Something about the Taliban and a piece of equipment."

Zack sighed and my heart fell a bit, "I am so sorry. I will make it up to you. You know what? No. I am going to call him back. His issues can wait-"

"Max, just go," he said. "I'm not mad, the surprise can wait- saving people cant."

"Zack," I said feeling guilty.

"Just stay safe."

"Yea," I whispered, "will do."

I hung up the phone feeling like the worst person in the world. Stupid Logan. Quickly changing, I grabbed my keys to ninja and was off to Logan's.

When I got there he was waiting in the living room. We went over the plan and what he needed me to get. It was so chip thing. I didn't really care what it did or how it worked, I just wanted to steal it and bust this joint.

We took his car and waited for a shift change. The clock was moving slow. We still had like 15 minutes till something would happen and his presence was making me antsy.

"Everything okay?" he asked as I continued to fidget.

"I hate waiting," I muttered.

"Its 15 minutes, not too long."

"Its long when you have plans you have to bail on," I turned to Logan with a raised eyebrow.

"Well Max, I think this is more important than your so called plans," he said looking out the windshield. My eyes narrowed at him and I wondered when he turned into such a big jerk and how the hell I couldn't have seen it sooner.

"Screw this, im going in." I told him, jumping out of the car.

"Max!" he called in a low voice.

I easily passed security. Stealing a white suit from the plant, I put it on and grabbed some radiator detector thing. There were two men doing something with the mechanical arm. I needed that chip I guess.

Giving them some bogus thing about hair loss, they quickly ran off and I grabbed the chip. The mission was pretty easy, except for the part when I got busted. I guess Logan wasn't kidding when he said they had maximum security. I ran down the halls and outside when I was shot with those stun gun things. God those hurt. Unfortunately I got stunned enough to get some shit kicked into me. A few punches here and some kicks to my legs, I was down for the count. That was until I took out those little tazers and kicked some real ass. I noticed that this place wasn't really concerned about the thief, rather than what I had stolen. The siren alarm just kept repeating 'drop the item so we wont have to use deadly force'. Looking up at the building again, it didn't really look like a plant…it looked more like a lab.

More backup was coming, and without a thought, I jumped into this waterfall and swam back to Logan.

"Did you get it?" he asked.

"Yea, I got it," I told him as I sat back in the car. I was a little pissed he didn't see I was injured or try and care.

"Perfect," he said with a grin as I showed him the baggie with the microchip in it.

"What did you say this plant was again?" I asked him before we could drive off.

"Secret government factory," Logan said not looking at me.

"That's funny because it seems to me it's more like a lab. And what's even funnier is that they didn't care what I was doing- rather that I had something important." I said with anger in my voice.

"Max," he started.

"What did I just steal Logan?" I questioned, not allowing him to put his car in drive.

"I need it." He whispered

My eyes widened. "This was for you?"

"Max, wait. Look-"

Before my anger could get the best of me, I got out of the car and slammed the door.

"Max!" he called.

"I'll walk home," I told him and turned around. My body was aching in pain while my thoughts were still developing. How could Logan do this? What had I been doing all this time?

By the time I got home, I could barely keep myself upright. I walked into the door and let my legs fall from under me. Luckily I caught myself on the counter and pulled myself up.

"Maxie?" Zack called hearing someone come in. "Max!" he yelled when he saw me.

"I'm okay," I said. He moved my arm to lie over his neck while he wrapped an arm around my waist.

"What happened?" he asked dragging me to the bathroom like an injured soldier.

I gave a sharp intake of breath as my side was stretched.

"Come on, we need to get you cleaned up," he said careful of my injuries. Helping me sit on the high surface tile of our bathroom tub, he grabbed a first aid kit.

"I'm okay Zack," I told him as he began cleaning up a cut on my lip.

"What the hell happened?" he asked again. My mind flashed back to everything that happened. What I did and who I did it for…

My eyes fell and I moved Zack's hand away that was attending to the cut on my forehead.  
>"I think I just stole something from some good people," I whispered.<p>

"I thought you said-"

"Yea, well I guess it wasn't as it seemed." I bit out before he could say anything. Calming down, I let out a breath and gave him more details. "Logan had me steal something and I found out it was for his personal use."

"What?" he asked sharply. Before he could go all macho man on me, I grabbed his hand and then set one of my own hands on his set jaw. Looking into his eyes I made him calm down.

His anger in his eyes and posture melted as he saw how much this bothered me. Leaning forward, he gave me a soft kiss, being gentle of the cut on my lip.

"I didn't know," I said as he moved my hair away from my face. "I didn't figure it out till I got back in the car with him."

"Its not your fault Maxie," he said.

"What did I do Zack?" I questioned, breaking eye contact. He let me think in silence as he finished cleaning me up. I guess I had a nasty cut on the back of my leg, along with some bruises and minor cuts all over my body.

After that, we both decided a bath was needed. Getting in the tub together, we let the warm water soothe both our anger problems.

"I'm sorry I bailed on your surprise," I told Zack, playing with our entwined hands.

"Its okay Maxie, im just glad you're okay," he said kissing my temple.

I let my body relax against his and felt so much love. Being around Zack- there was just something about it. He had a bunch of candles lit around the tub while we both soaked in a bubble bath. He made sure our hands stayed entwined together and kept me securely enclosed around him. His cheek rubbed against the side of my head in a comforting manner, and placed kisses wherever he could reach every few minutes.

"So will I ever get to know what the surprise was?" I asked after a few minutes. My guilty thoughts were stowed away for now and Zack could read/see that.

"No," he chuckled, kissing my lips as I turned to look at him.

"Zack," I whined.

"Max," he mocked in the same tone. His eyes were light and that feeling of being one lucky girl washed over me again.

We stayed in the tub for a while longer. It wasn't until we were both pretty pruney that we got out. Kissing his lips, my thoughts continued to fade and all I could think at the time was Zack. I wanted him. I needed him.

"We shouldn't, you're hurt," he said pulling away before anything could get too far. My eyes fell and I cursed Logan in my head once again.

I accepted the little kisses Zack gave to ease the rejection and then walked off to put some clothes on. Slipping on some underwear and one of his tee shirts, I found him staring at me in the doorway. I flashed him a smile and waited for him to come to me. When he did, we collided against each other hard.

"What happened to not doing anything tonight?" I joked against his lips and wandering hands. He gave a groan and I pulled away a bit. His face showed disappointment and im pretty sure he was regretting what he had said a few minutes ago. Doing the same he did for me, I gave him small little kisses against his lips and waited till he found some more self-control.

Once my mission was complete, I walked off into our bedroom and slid under the covers. Zack joined me a little while later, in his boxers and a white tee shirt.

"Love you Maxie," he said holding me close.

"Love you too Zack," I replied and then drifted off to sleep. Sleep was good. It was actually better now that Zack was around. I found that I didn't have a problem dreaming and the dreams weren't always about Manticore and people trying to get me. They seemed more peaceful and happy; and I think it was all because of Zack.

* * *

><p>The next morning I woke up a bit achy and unfortunately alone. The side where Zack had slept was empty and almost cold. Sighing, I slowly got up and out of bed. It was unusual to hear chatter going on in the morning. I could hear people laughing and talking. My guess was the TV.<p>

Walking out of the bedroom, my eyes went wide.

"Morning sleepy head," Syl smiled.

"What?" I gasped, bouncing over to give them all a hug.

"Syl! Zane! Krit! Jondy! What are you all doing here?" I asked in happiness.

"Well, I believe that it was this week that we destroyed Manticore." Krit smiled.

"Yea, it was blown up at midnight, so I guess the celebration counts for yesterday and today," Syl laughed.

"Happy no more Manticore day sis," Zane smiled as we all laughed and cheered.

Watching them, the smile on my face would never disappear.

"This was your surprise wasn't it?" I questioned to Zack as he sat at the counter watching all of us.

"Like it?" he smirked.

"Love it," I smiled back. We had this moment. Our eyes just went soul deep in each other.

"Pancakes?" Jondy asked breaking it up.

"Smells good," I smiled and grabbed a seat next to Zack. His hand that rested on the countertop came down and grabbed my hand. I flashed him another smile and started eating with my left hand. Something good about Manticore was that they made us ambidextrous. It came to be pretty useful, especially in times like this.

We all sat around talking and eating for a while. It was good to just sit and listen to everything everyone had been up to. It wasn't until my pager went off that everyone rolled their eyes.

"At least he gave it a 15 minute break." Zane commented.

"Logan has been paging you," Zack supplied with a bit of anger. Squeezing his hand I nodded and then left the counter. Before I could reach my bag, the phone rang. Everyone shot me a look and I walked back over to the counter and answered it.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Hey Boo."

"Hey OC," I said in relief. Everyone relaxed a bit and went back to cooking and talking.

"What's this I hear about you taking a personal day?" she asked.

I looked over at Zack and smiled. He was laughing with Jondy and Krit.

"I guess I am."

"Girl, is there something you want to tell me?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well for one, why are you taking a personal day? And what the heck is going on between you and Logan? Why is he on some mental mission to see you?"

"Logan's there?" I asked quietly.

"Yea, he stopped here looking for you. He's looking pretty down."

"Yea, well he should." I said curtly.

"Everything okay with you two?" she asked.

"No. Hey look, do you think you can you cover for me with him? I really don't feel like dealing with his sorry ass today."

"Sure Boo," she said sweetly. "As long as you are okay."

"I'm great," I said with a genuine smile. "Zack surprised me with some visitors today."

"Ah, he brought them all down here for a reunion huh?" she asked.

"Something like that," I smiled over the phone. "Look OC, I got to go, talk to you later?" I asked.

"Sure thing girl. Hey, we are thinking of meeting at Crash tonight if you all want to come," she pitched.

"Sounds great, I'll see what our plans are and maybe we'll see you there."

"Alright, see you later boo," she said and then hung up.


	2. Chapter 2

"What did OC want?" Zack asked as I stepped away from the phone.

"She is meeting everyone at Crash tonight if we wanted to go." I said, not looking at him. I wasn't sure if I should tell him about Logan looking for me.

"Sounds good to me," Jondy said.

"I'm in," Syl said.

"Party over here," Krit joked.

"I guess that's the plan for tonight then." Zane smiled.

"Awesome," I smiled. We all began talking again, but this time, it wasn't as great as it was before. My thoughts drifted back to OC and Logan. What was he thinking? What was I going to do?

"Everything okay there Maxie?" Jondy asked.

"Yea," I smiled tightly. "I'm going to go get dressed," I told them and walked off. Shutting the bedroom door, I let out a breath. My heart was heavy for some reason. I guess it was because I felt betrayed. Logan broke my trust and our friendship. He had me steal something for his own good. Sure, I guess I did it too, but I had a good reason. And mine was from bad people. I had a feeling I had just stolen from good people. All of this put me in a hard position to tell Zack. Knowing him, I'm sure he was ready to kill Logan. Not only that, but I think yesterday really worried him. It really worried me.

"Need some help picking out something to wear Maxie?" Zack asked.

I jumped a bit as his breath fanned against my ear. I didn't hear him even come in.

His hands slid down to my hips and he turned my body to face his.

"What's going on?" he asked.

Looking up at him, I brought my hand to slide around his neck. I played with the hair that covered his barcode and then stared at his lips. Whether it was him or I that moved first, when our lips touched, it made my thoughts stay quiet. All I wanted was him.

"Max," he mumbled against my lips, "What happened?"

Sighing, I pulled away and rest my head on his shoulder. His arms came around me, careful not to touch the injuries from last night.

"OC called because Logan was looking for me. She was just making sure I was okay since he was going all mental up at Jam Pony."

Zack went stiff and let out a hard breath as I held him close. Within a few minutes he seemed to relax a bit.

"He say anything?" Zack practically gritted out.

"No, just that he was looking for me. OC said not to worry, she had my back."

Zack nodded, accepting the answer and continued to hold me close.

Putting up my defense mechanism, I lifted my head from his chest and switched the subject.

"Are we going to tell our brothers and sisters out there what's going on between us?" I questioned.

Zack brushed some hair away from my eyes, "only if you want to."

I nodded and felt like I was left with another problem. I knew Zack wanted to. His feelings for me were not kept very hidden. And I just didn't know if I was ready yet.

Letting go of my boyfriend, I picked out something to wear and stole a quick kiss from the looker.

Zack must have left our bedroom when I went into the bathroom to change. It was when I was walking out of our room that Zack had tried to explain all the cuts and bruises on me to everyone.

"I got beat up," I announced.

"I stole some microchip from Logan and got caught up in the high powered security. Who knew secret government labs were so protective of their work," I said with sarcasm.

I noticed how the kitchen was all cleaned up and we had now all shifted to the couches.

"Any other questions?" I asked.

"When can we beat up his sorry ass?" Zane asked sweetly.

"You don't. I can deal with him- just not today," I stated.

"Well, we got your back when you do sis" Jondy smiled.

"Duly noted."

We continued on with our day. It was full of stories and laughter. We ended up playing twister around dinnertime, which was…interesting. 4 transgenetics-playing twister. It was like a never-ending game. Zack spun the board again and gave me a wink.

"Left hand yellow," he stated.

We all shouted and laughed.

"I'm pretty sure all of the yellow spots are taken!" Jondy yelled. As we all laughed, someone went tumbling and we all fell to the ground. After the dog pile was over, Zack held out a hand and helped me up. Laughing and smiling in his arms, I stood up on my tiptoes waiting to kiss him. His eyes gave me a look- are you sure? They seemed to be asking. Still smiling, I looked down at his lips and planted a kiss on him.

"I knew it!" Syl exclaimed.

I let out a giggle, pulling away from Zack and turning to her.

"Why Syl, I have no idea what you are talking-"

Zack moved his head, covering his lips with mine again. From there, I was lost in a world of love. There were laughs and hoots and even hollers but I didn't really seem to care. Zack was kissing me and that's all I could think.

"Okay you two, break it up," Zane said standing up.

I stared into Zack's eyes and could tell I made him the happiest man ever.

"So are we going to get details about all of this?" Jondy smirked.

"I knew it would happen. Finally!" Syl chirped as she high fived everyone.

"Well, if we are going to Crash, we need to go get ready, cause we gotta blaze soon." I told all of them. Walking out of Zack's arms, I went to our bedroom, smiling at Jondy and Syl as they followed me.

They each picked out something to wear out of my closet and continued to question me.

"So how long has this been going on?" Jondy asked.

"I don't know, it just happened," I said sliding on some pants.

"Just happened?" Jondy said with an eyebrow.

"Okay, so it was around the time Tinga died and Manticore went down."

"Of course it would take something like Manticore to finally bring you guys together." Jondy said with an eye roll.

"And Tinga," I added, slipping on my shirt. Checking myself out in the mirror, I had found that most of my cuts and bruises had healed, looking like I was as good as new.

"I knew that girl didn't go down in vein," Syl said. "What? She gave us all the strength to come together and take down Manticore. Hell, she even brought Lydecker together with us." Syl defended as I gave her a look.

Syl was kind of right though. Because of Tinga, we defeated Manticore, brought Zack and I together, and made sure her kid and husband was safe.

"Okay, so how does Logan fit into all of this then?" Jondy asked. "Last time I checked, you two were all buddy buddy, and you and Zack were hatin' on each other."

"One of the missions- Logan really screwed himself up bad. I guess I didn't inform him with enough information to his liking, so he went to Lydecker."

"That boy did what?" Syl asked stopping in her tracks.

"Lydecker ended up sending some info on me when I was a kid, talking about all I was good for was to kill. It ended up taking a toll on our relationship. Logan had a hard time seeing past it. Then Tinga came along, trying to save her family and Zack swooped in."

"Imma kill him," Syl said referring to Logan as she was finishing her makeup.

"Why on earth would he contact Lydecker? Out of all the god damn people in the world," Jondy muttered.

"Exactly what I thought. And when I found out, lets just say I flipped."  
>"Sounds exactly what I would do Maxie," Syl and Jondy agreed.<p>

" So then Zack came in and what? You guys finally admitted your feelings for each other?" Jondy asked.

I let out a laugh and began my makeup. "Not exactly."

_It was when Tinga came back to save her son. We were under fire at the apartment and Zack barged through the window, rescuing us. We made it to the roof, propelling Zack, Tinga, her son and husband down. It was just as I was about to jump down and meet them when Brin shot the rope and it went tumbling down._

"_Run!" I yelled down to them. I didn't dare look at Zack. Instead I pulled back from the edge and turned to kick some ass._

"_Brin, you don't have to do this…" I said as we circled each other._

_Still watching me and saying nothing, she went into her battle stance. We ended up fighting, and what I found was that she was quite strong. She easily blocked many of my moves I learned from Manticore and got me pinned down to the floor easily. She had her gun out, pointing to my head about ready to kill me._

"_You saved my life once, this means we are even. Next time I see you, you die." She said putting her gun away._

"_Im not giving up on you Brin," I told her. _

_Before she could say or do anything else, I heard the troops coming and turned, jumping off the building. It was a hard fall. I tried to move myself to slide against the smooth building to lower the impact of my fall, yet it didn't seem to help that much. I landed on my feet, but they quickly gave way, as the impact was too strong. Getting up, I quickly ran off before Manticore people could try and stop me._

_I made it back to Logan's and was relieved to see everyone there._

"_What happened to you?" Zack questioned concerned as he stood by the elevator doors. I gave a wince at my sore ankle and shook my head._

"_You don't want to know," I muttered and then continued to walk over to everyone else._

"_You okay?" Logan asked taking a look at me. I had a busted lip, was limping, and holding my arm against my side._

"_Fine," I spoke. "How are they?"_

"_Aside from learning life altering news?" Logan asked me as if I was oblivious._

"_Bite me," I said with attitude and then went to the kitchen._

_Zack was hovering around the room while I took a seat at the table. Sighing, I let my body relax a bit and began to melt in the chair._

"_All I was saying is that they are going to need some time. What she just put on him is a lot to handle." Logan said wheeling up to me._

"_Got it," I said not looking at him._

"_We should get you looked at," Logan said as he continued to stare at me. I touched my bleeding lip and wiped away some blood._

"_I'm fine."_

"_That's great Max, but your bleeding…and limping I might add. If you want to save Tinga and her-"_

"_Don't." I said cutting him off, "Don't tell me how to save my sister or what to do, okay Logan? Just spare me." I said with a harsh attitude._

"_What is with you?" he asked me._

_I stared at him and then a cross-armed Zack, who came to join our conversation by leaning against the kitchen table._

"_Brin," I said softly as my eyes casted downward. "The girl's got moves."_

"_She's been reprogrammed," Zack said._

"_Yep." I sighed._

"_I guess we deserved that then," Zack concluded._

"_What's that supposed to mean?" I asked him. My eyes snapped up to his face and I gave him a hard look._

"_We promised to get her out Maxie and look what happened." he exclaimed, giving me a hard yet disappointed look._

"_I intend to keep my promise Zack," I bit out. "Reprogrammed or not, she is still our sister and she is in there somewhere."_

"_Max," Logan tried to cut in._

"_Stay out of this," I snapped at him. _

_Zack and I went back to glaring at each other. It wasn't until Tinga came back in that she saw (and felt) what was going on._

"_Come on girl, lets go get you cleaned up." She told me, breaking the tension in the room._

_Nodding, I slowly pushed myself up and allowed her to help me to the bathroom. Sitting on the counter, I waited for her to apply rubbing alcohol to the cuts._

"_How are they?" I asked._

"_Charlie isn't talking to me right now and Case is sleeping." She said softly._

"_I'm sorry Tinga," I told her with deep sadness._

"_Not your fault girl. I should have told him a while ago. I put him in a mess that he would have been able to walk out of if I told him who I really was from the start."_

"_Hey," I told her before she could turn her focus to my cuts. "He is going to get past this- all of you are. It's a lot to deal with, but the way he was concerned for you- the way he loves you- he will come around. Don't give up on him or yourself just yet."_

_She gave me a small smile and nodded. "Thanks."_

"_Anytime," I smiled and then winced as I split open the cut again._

"_Lets get you cleaned up," Tinga laughed._

_The alcohol stung but considering all the pain I was in right now, it didn't feel like much._

"_So what's going on between you and Zack?" Tinga questioned._

"_What do you mean?" I asked a little too defensively. She shot me a look as she bent down to attend to my ankle._

_Shrugging, I looked at her. "He's being a jerk. He's giving up on Brin, hating on you for going back to your family, hating on all of us for wanting a life and everything else. I'm tired of it."_

"_And Logan?" she asked._

"_He's getting to me too. Acting all concerned and stuff. Like his input is gunna matter to what I do. I don't like the feeling I get when im around him- especially with Zack there. Plus, it doesn't help that Zack hates Logan. Why cant he just man up?" I huffed._

_Tinga gave me another look and I rolled my eyes._

"_What?"_

"_Just thinking. You seemed to be hatin' on Zack a lot." She commented._

"_That's because he deserves it." I told her. "Acting all pissy and tough. Who does he think he is? Saying it's our fault Brin is all robo Manticore and the whole spiel about how we shouldn't have lives. He's all business and…" I trailed off._

"_And what?" she asked._

"_Nothing," I sighed._

"_You know, the whole car ride when he was helping me escape, all he could talk about was you. He sounded just like you right about now. He kept bashing on how you wouldn't leave and that he wanted you to be safe. How you were so stubborn and just wouldn't listen to him."_

_I gave her a look. What was her point?_

"_He cares about you Max. He always has and you know that. And he's protective of all of us. In a way, Zack is right. I shouldn't have gotten involved with Charlie but if I wouldn't have, I would have never gotten Chase. And my time with them- its worth more to me than my life. Just knowing that they are okay- that they are safe and loved- and to know that somewhere inside them, they love me; it's enough. I can live with that. All of the bad in the world is no comparison to the good that they make me feel."_

_My heart melted a bit. I wonder what that feeling feels like. It must be amazing. Breathtaking too im sure._

_Tinga patted my leg and stood up. "All set."_

"_Thanks Sis," I smiled and hopped down the counter. I gave a small wince but continued to smile nonetheless._

_Both our hearts dropped as Charlie cried for Tinga._

"_Penn-Tinga!" Charlie exclaimed with Case in his arms. "He's burning up."_

_Terrified, Tinga ran over to the two of them. She put a hand to her forehead and then looked at me for help. Walking over to the two of them, I felt his head and something caught my eye._

"_Turn him over," I told Charlie. There, was a barcode showing up on his neck. Tinga looked at me panicked. I'm sure this was her worst nightmare._

"_Its 14 digits," I said out loud, "we only have 12."_

"_It's a phone number," Logan said wheeling himself in. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Zack with a weird expression on his face and then he began walking away from us._

_Giving Logan a look, he nodded, "ill set up an untraceable phone."_

_As wheeled off I watched as Charlie held Case and looked at Tinga with sad pleading eyes._

"_We can't lose him," Charlie cried.  
>"We wont," Tinga said comforting him.<em>

_Finding myself sick, I walked off away from them. I felt like this place was suffocating me._

"_Going somewhere?" Zack asked as I walked back in the kitchen with my boots in hand._

"_Out," I told him, zipping up my shoes._

"_Got it," Logan said coming in the room. Sighing, I grabbed the phone out of his hands and went back over to Tinga. I called the number on Case's neck and Lydecker picked up. Without another choice, we made the deal- Tinga for Case's cure. How sick was this?  
>As Charlie, Tinga and Case held each other for the last time, I made my way back to the door. I didn't dare let anyone stop me. Getting out of Logan's place was like coming up for air. The relief I felt was indescribable. Heading towards the space tower, I got up there (with a bit more difficulty than usual). I sat down, just watching the scene below me. How could this happen? How is any of this fair?<em>

"So?" Syl asked, as we were almost all ready to go.

"He followed me onto the space tower. I just didn't hear him jump up."

"And that's where he told you he loved you didn't he?" Jondy asked with a dreamy smile.

"No," I laughed. "That definitely wasn't the time to confessed his love to me."

"Oh, really?" Jondy asked a bit bummed.

"Nope, he didn't do it while we will still dealing with Tinga. He actually ended up telling me that he couldn't be around to help with Tinga. It was too dangerous and he didn't trust Lydecker."

"Damn," Jondy said.

"But he came anyways didn't he?" Syl asked.

I nodded, "he did."

Opening the bedroom door, I turned back to the girls and smiled, "and a lot changed after that."

* * *

><p>Meeting the guys, we found that they cleaned up pretty nicely too. As the girls got ready in our bedroom, the boys' got ready in the guest.<p>

"Not too bad fellas" I smirked, as each of us girls appreciated the look over the boys were giving us. We left for Crash a little while later, getting there just before the huge crowd set in.

"Your boy's over there," OC murmured to me as I walked in the club. Grabbing my arm she dragged us towards one of the back tables.

"Thanks," I breathed. Saving me and my night from Logan definitely classified her as a lifesaver. She nodded and then gave me a hug. "It's been a long day without you girl."

Sketchy soon found as and then joined Zane and Zack at the foosball table while Krit was getting us some pitchers of beer. All that was left in the group were the girls and they wanted to hear more.

"So continue," Jondy said waiting on her drink. I rolled my eyes and stared at them.

"You can't be serious?"

"I am," Syl said. "You can't just leave us hanging there Maxie."

"You were there," I supplied to Syl.

"Yea well obviously you two kept it under wraps since nobody knew about this," she replied back.

"Original Cindy would like to know what's going on," OC cut in.

"I was telling them about how Zack and I somewhat got together because of Tinga," I told her.

"Oh, really? Now Original Cindy didn't hear this story? She thought it was just some transgenetic thing. Like you all have feelings for each other," She said.

I gave her a raised eyebrow. All?

"Oh come on. Obviously blondie over here, Syl? -has feelings for Krit, and then there you," she said pointing to Jondy. "You have a thing for the other one. What's his name?" OC asked me.

"Zane," I said with a smirk. I gave my sisters both a look and let out a laugh, as OC was right. The two of them were blushing and embarrassed like heck.

"So how long has this been going on?" I asked in a curious tone.

Before either of them could respond, Krit came back with our beers. Giving OC a quick knuckle touch and wink, I poured myself a drink and enjoyed the rest of the night.

As boys went off to play some more foosball and pool, the girls stayed around the tall table and talked.

"So, spill," I commented.

"You can't tell," Jondy said.

"Lips are sealed sis, for both of you," they smiled at me and then confessed.

"Since that night, when we decided to take down Manticore, Krit and I got closer. I forgot how much I missed him. And since then…well, you know." Syl said with a nervous/embarrassed chuckle.

"And you?" I questioned to Jondy.

"Zane and I have actually been seeing each other on and off. I know. Zack says we cant be near each other and all that- but we just…kinda meet up every month or so and talk. Its nice."

I let a smirk plaster my face and held up my beer. "That's what I like to hear," I told her, clinking her glass with mine and then taking a sip of my beer.

"You're not mad?" she asked.

"Never," I smiled at her. "That's one thing Zack and I agreed to disagree on. He was all no contact, no visiting, no this, no that. And I didn't like it."

Jondy smiled and I made sure she understood I would never be mad at her for something like that.

"Think they like you back?" OC asked the girls. Each of them looked iffy.

"Well, then go show them what you got," OC said nodding over to the pool table. Zack, Zane and Krit were all playing while Sketchy seemed to be hitting on some girl.

"Go, now's your chance," I smiled as they looked at each other.

Both Jondy and Syl got up off their stools and headed over to the pool table to show off their mad skills.

With just OC and me at the table, we had our own little 'girl talk'.

"Girl, you would believe how fine she was. All hot and up in here," OC said fanning herself. I let out a laugh as Original Cindy smiled at me.

"Ladies," a voice said interrupting us. Both of our smiles dropped and we turned to find Logan. Standing.

"How-?" I asked shocked.

"How are you standin'?" OC asked.

"Can we talk?" he asked turning to me.

"Oh no," OC spoke up. "You are not taking my boo. No. She is mine tonight," OC continued with a hand on her hip.

"I need to talk with Max Cindy," he said and then turned his attention back to me.

"Its **Original** Cindy, thank you. And Max ain't going nowhere to talk with you," OC said before I could say anything.

"Max?" he asked looking at me.

"Anything you need to say you can say in front of Original Cindy," I told him with attitude as I sipped my drink.

"Alright," he said clearly unhappy. "I wanted to apologize for the other day. What I had you do was wrong."

"You think?" OC commented. Logan gave her a look and OC just ignored it, giving him a disapproving glare back. I smiled up at Original Cindy. She had no clue what happened yet she was sticking up for me anyways.

"Max please. I think we just need to talk," Logan said.

"And I think you need to get your ears checked," OC spoke.

"Cindy," he said icily.

"**Original** Cindy." She corrected.

"Logan," I sighed. I felt myself about to give in and go with him until my thoughts shifted. Shaking my head I decided against it. He didn't deserve another chance- not yet anyways.

"How are you walking? Or standing for that matter?" I asked switching topics.

"Courtesy of our friend Phil," he said.

"Stealin things from our friends now," I muttered.

Before he could say anything, I finished off my beer and found our pitcher was empty.

Sliding off my stool, I took the pitcher and went off to get a refill. Logan spun around, grasping my forearm.

"You're going to want to let go of me if you want to keep that hand," I announced to him. Slowly, he let go of me and I continued to walk off.

"Max," he sighed, catching up to me as he made his way the crowd at the bar.

"Logan," I said turning to him with an annoyed face. "I really don't feel like talking to you. Or seeing you for that matter. I came here to have a good time. You being here- just kinda kills it."

"Max look, I know you're mad," he said trying again.

"No not mad- furious. I can't believe you would have me do such a thing Logan. I trusted you. I thought you were all- 'for the greater good'. So with that out of the way, I don't feel like seeing you or talking to you. Not now and not for a hell of a long time."

He stared at me and I returned it with a glare.

A throat cleared beside us and I found Zane, Syl, and Jondy all cross-armed and glaring at him.

"You're going to want to leave Max alone," Zane said.

"Like now." Syl added as he continued to stand there.

"So this is how it's going to be?" Logan asked, turning back to stare me.

"I guess so," I commented, looking at my brother and sisters.

"Fine," he said, giving me one last look and then walked off.

"You okay?" Jondy asked me after he made his way back into the crowd of people.

"Great," I said putting on somewhat of a fake smile. Looking over at the pool table, I found OC, Krit and Zack all looking at us.

"Well good riddance" OC said as I approached her.

"Thanks," I said walking into her open arms for a hug. Syl, Jondy and Zane stood near us just happy with their actions and the sight.

"Anytime boo. I thought backup might be good," OC smirked. Giving me a quick wink, she walked off with Sly, Zane and Jondy in tow.

"You okay?" Zack asked watching me with a pool stick in hand.

"Yea," I said biting my lip. Zack walked over to me- closing the space between us. Sliding a hand up his chest and across his neck, I let my need and desire wash over me as our lips touched.

We parted slowly and Zack muttered softly against my lips. "You have no idea how much I wanted to go over there and kick his ass."

"But you didn't," I smiled at him.

"Only because Krit threatened me that if I moved even an inch he would try and kick my ass."

"Not a good thing to do in public," I laughed a bit as he kissed my ear.

"I would have moved and been at your side in seconds if Jondy, Syl and Zane didn't go over there," Zack told me, hugging me close.

"Glad to know," I smiled up at him.

"Zack, you're up," Sketchy said watching the game.

Giving him one last quick kiss, I pulled out of his arms and walked over to stand by Sketchy as Zack took his turn.

"Who's winning?" I asked Sketch.

"Zane. He's kicking everyone's ass by 2."

Nodding, I hopped up on the banister that Sketchy was sitting on and watched the game.

* * *

><p>"It all comes down to this," Sketchy announce, using his fist as a microphone. "Zane lines up his stick and…Misses!"<p>

We all laughed and watched the intense game of pool. Krit was up next. He lines up his stick to the white ball and hits it in.

"These boys," OC muttered to me. I looked at her and smiled.

"What can I say, we didn't have a pool table at Manticore."

OC smiled at me and then went off to get another drink.

"And he wins!" Sketchy yelled. "Krit, how do you feel on this unbelievable night?"

We all laughed as Krit played along. "It's a real honor," he said with a hand on his heart.

"You made a great comeback," Sketchy said, almost sounding as he was idolizing him.

As Krit and Sketchy talked some more, I drifted over to my boyfriend and hugged his waist.

"Better luck next time," I smiled.

"Luck has nothing to do with it," he replied smartly while brushing some hair away from my face. I rolled my eyes at his comment and took the drink OC was handing me.

"What's this?" I asked.

"I don't know, bartender said it was good so I got us both one," OC said taking a sip.

Going along with it, I took a sip and made a face. Zack gave me an amused look and I had him try a sip.

"That's disgusting," he told Original Cindy, making the same face I did.

"Told you," I said smartly. He pinched my side and I gave a little laugh.

"It was on the house. Apparently we are good business or something," she said and then walked off.

"Yo Sketch!" I exclaimed.

"Yes my Max- a- million," he said drunkenly.

"A drink. On the house," I told him, practically shoving it in his hand.

"Sweet" he murmured and took a sip. He gave a face and drank some more, "Not bad."

"Good," I said. Giving it to him straight up before he could walk away, I met his eyes- "and don't ever call me that again."

"Sure," he replied and then was off to socialize.

Turning back to Zack, his lips quickly latched onto mine.

"What was that for?" I asked when he slowly pulled away.

"Did I tell you how beautiful you look today?" he wondered. Grinning, I laced my hands up his chest and across his neck.

"I don't believe you have."

"Well then, Maxie, you look gorgeous."

Finding that twinkle in his eye and the exhilarating rush I feel when im with him, I continued to stare up at him.

My fingers played with the hair that lay over his barcode. Everything about Zack was amazing. Running my tips of my fingers across the lines, I could start to feel Goosebumps rise on his skin.

"Careful," he said with his face just centimeters from mine. He covered my hand on his neck with his and made comforting patterns with his thumb across my hand.

"I am," I whispered back and then kissed him. Lips parting- l let the temptation to taste him give in. I felt his tongue dance with mine in a fast, hard pace. It was needy and raw. Yet, then he surprised me- attacking my lower lip in a slow deep passionate way.

"I love you," he breathed as we pulled away for air.

"I love you too," I said gazing up at him.

It was around 3 am that we finally left Crash. Sketchy was beyond drunk, OC was pretty tipsy, and the rest of us handling our alcohol just perfectly.

"Come on, I'll take you home," I told OC. Unraveling myself from Zack, I went to grab a hold of my best friend.

"Nah, I got this boo. Sketchy is the one that needs some help," she said in her disapproving tone.

"You, Original Cindy, are slightly drunk. I'm not letting you roam the streets alone." I said looping an arm with her.

"And how are you going to get home?" she asked me.

"I can walk." I supplied.

"Not by yourself, you ain't." she told me in the same tone she gave Sketchy.

"We'll take her," Jondy and Syl volunteered.

"The girls can take OC and the boys will take Sketchy." Syl spoke with enthusiasm.

"Why are you so anxious?" I asked the two of them.

"You still have a story to finish," Jondy said in my ear as she pulled OC away from me. Syl grinned at me as she went to catch up with OC and Jondy while I shook my head smiling.

"Get him home okay," I told Zack as he came up to me.

"Will do, be careful." He said, brushing a thumb across my cheek.

"Always am," I replied and gave him a small kiss.

"Lets go!" the girls yelled to me. Flashing Zack a quick wink, I turned around and went to catch up.

* * *

><p>"Alright, so come on, continue to spill," Jondy said.<p>

"What else is there to say? We finally hooked up and here we are," I said trying to brush it all off.

"Mmhmm, and you both just happened to go kicking Manticores ass all lovey dovey with each other." Syl said.

"We weren't exactly at that stage yet," I told her.

"Okay well whatever. Just spill," Jondy said.

I let out a huff and OC patted my shoulder. "You might as well just spill the beans Boo. Its three against one."

Laughing at her self-inclusion and the facial expression she was giving me, I took a breath and continued.

"After we rescued Case and Charlie, Zack and I were walking on foot with them for a while. At first, all there was was silence between us- all of us. Everything that happened was still so fresh; I think we were all trying to get it together. Charlie was bleeding and had a hard time walking, so Case slept in my arms. It wasn't until Zack started bringing up Lydecker that I began to feel less empty..."

"_What did you mean when you said you didn't think it was him?" Zack questioned with a look of hard thought on his face._

"_Lydecker honestly seemed like he had no clue what they were doing after the trade off. It was like he wasn't the ones pulling the strings to the operation," I told him._

"_You think there is someone else giving the commands?" he asked me._

_I shrugged my shoulders and lifted Case up a bit more. Zack just stared at me as we continued to walk._

* * *

><p>"<em>We should stop and get you looked at," I told Charlie as he was slowing down.<em>

"_No, im good. Right now, I just need to get Case somewhere safe. He's all that matters to me now," he breathed out, sounding like he was in a lot of pain._

"_We are safe. There should be a mini mart coming up in a few. We can get you some supplies there to get you cleaned up."_

_Stopping at the little store, Zack unhappily went inside and got us some medical supplies. We were still a ways from Logan's and it was already soon going to be dark._

"_We'll have to stop at a place for tonight. We shouldn't risk being out in the dark." I told Zack as he came back. Giving me one of his well known disproving looks, I rolled my eyes._

"_You don't have to stick around. I can do this myself," I told him, grabbing the supplies out of his hands._

_I had Charlie sit down on a bench and assessed his damages._

"_I can't just leave you Maxie," Zack said with his hands in his jacket pockets._

"_I'm a big girl Zack, I can handle it. I wouldn't want to weigh you down or anything," I said bitterly._

_He let out a huff and all went silent again._

"_This should be good for now. I can fix you up more when we find you and Case place to stay for the night."_

"_Thank you." Charlie said to me. "I don't know what I would have done if I lost both of them. You-"_

_I gave him a friendly smile and squeezed his hand lightly._

"_Tinga's my girl- I will always have her back. Just knowing that you have her heart, along with Case, is enough for me. You don't need to thank me for anything. I just thank you for showing my girl what a normal life is."_

_He gave me a teary eyed smile and I stood up. _

"_Lets go, we should find a place to stay before night."_

_I was actually pretty happy that Zack followed us along. I felt my heart lift, thinking that maybe he had some hope in him after all._

_We ended up at some cheep motel. With two queen size beds to a room, I laid Case down and went back over to Charlie t help fix him up. We put a wrap around his bruised ribs and then re-bandaged all the cuts to his head and rest of the body. When we were done, he gave me another genuine smile and then went to lie down, scooping Case in his arms to cuddle. I stood in the doorway just watching them for a bit. My heart was breaking at the thought of Tinga not being here. Their goodbye was beyond heart wrenching. _

_My eyes shifted to Zack and I found him staring at me. Giving him a small smile, I grabbed my jacket off the dresser and went to get out of here._

"_Where are you going?" he asked._

"_Fresh air," I told him. Putting a hand on my lower back he slowly followed me out._

_Standing outside of the room I let out a breath. Now was the time I really wish I was up at the space tower. I sat on the little porch step and put one hand in the other._

"_We need to get her back," I told Zack. "Her family will not go through life without her."_

_I was surprised when an arm wrapped around my shoulders. It seemed unlike Zack. Instead of talking to me, he just held me close. Nuzzling my head into his shoulder, I felt my pain for everyone slowly drift away._

"_We will Maxie," he whispered against the top of my head._

_I don't remember how long we stayed out there. It seemed like minutes but im sure it was hours. He held me for the longest time, just comforting me in the best way possible. Without words._

"_We should get some food for them before they wake up," I told Zack as the sun was starting to rise._

"_Okay," he whispered, nuzzling himself in me. Staying as we were for a few more minutes, I finally pulled away, grasping his hands to pull him up._

_My thoughts were uplifted, as he didn't pull his hands away from mine. We continued to be joined in some way as we walked to the mart. Grabbing some cereal and some milk, we quickly paid and went back to the motel._

"You're seriously going to stop there?" Jondy asked as we got back to the apartment.

"Yes," I laughed looking at the two. Slipping off my jacket, I sighed at the content feeling I got, as it seemed good to be home.

"You're finishing this tomorrow," Jondy told me.

"Whatever you say. Goodnight girls," I told them walking off to my bedroom with a smirk plastered on my face.


	3. Chapter 3

Closing the door softly so I wouldn't wake Zack, I ventured over to our closet.

"Finally back?" Zack questioned a bit groggily.

"Yea, sorry," I said quietly, walking back over to the bed to see him.

"What took you guys so long?" he asked, rolling to face me.

"Story time," I laughed a bit. He looked at me confused and I shook my head, bending down to kiss his lips.

"Go back to sleep, I have to change," I told him with my hand on his cheek.

He took in a deep breath, waking up a bit and then propped himself up on his elbow. "I'm okay, I want to be with you."

"You are with me," I teased. I smiled against his lips as his arm ventured up to my hip. I knew what he wanted. I could feel it. It was just this weird tingling feeling inside me. Almost like a rush of adrenaline and excitement.

As one thing ended up leading to another, before I knew it, both of our clothes' were gone. We laid face to face with each other, a light sheet wrapped around us as we savored the warmth and bliss of the moment.

"Thank you for today," I told him referring to our visitors. "It meant a lot."

"I know it did," he smirked, leaning in to kiss me.

We stayed there just watching each other. The feeling was comfortable and relaxing. It was like…this odd sense of peaceful euphoria. Zack continuously played with my hair while I stared into his eyes love struck.

"I'm glad we never gave up," he told me softly. I moved closer to him, no longer staying in reach for him to play with my hair. I cuddled my body against his, burying my face in his smooth and bare warm chest.

Something I left out in the story I told the girls was that the night I jumped up on the space tower, and he followed me without my knowledge, we got into a fight.

"_Zack" I breathed, getting up and turning around from the edge, where I stood looking down at the city._

"_Hey Maxie," he said with his whole body language, posture, and mood changing._

"_What are you doing up here?" I asked._

"_Thought you might need some company," he told me, walking a tiny bit closer to me. "So this is where you come to think and breathe huh?"_

_I turned, looking over my shoulder to glance at the city. "Yea, it is."_

"_Does it help?" he questioned, coming to stand in front of me._

"_Sometimes," I said with my focus still behind me on the city. Turning my head back, I gasped a bit at the small distance between us. "More than anything, it helps me clear my head and puts everything in perspective."_

"_And what is it telling you now?" he asked softly._

"_That no matter what we could possibly do, Lydecker wins this one. There is no easy trade off, but if Tinga has told me anything- it would be that her family is everything to her."_

_Zack looked away with his jaw set._

_Putting my hand under his chin, I turned his face to look at me._

"_No matter how much we don't like it or think its wrong, bottom line is it's still her choice. Her family means everything to her Zack, you of all people should know how that feels."_

_Zack pulled away at the end and turned his back to me._

"_She was stupid for even trying to have a family," he stated._

"_Is that really what you think?" I asked with anger now in my voice. "How could she be stupid for finally letting someone in, in her life? She finally got what we always wanted- a real life. She has a real job, a real home, and a real family Zack."_

"_Had Max," he told me in a cold tone as he turned back around. "She had all of that. Because of her poor decisions, she no longer has those things."_

"_She has her family- she has love," I told him with hard eyes. "She still has her husband-who although may be mad at her and overly confused- still loves her. She has her son- who idolizes her and has the most innocent and loving heart. Both of them care deeply about her. They worry about her. How can you tell me that those feelings and emotions, aren't something worth living for?"_

"_Because they weigh you down," he stated. "They make you weak and helpless. How is that any good for survival?"_

_I scoffed and tried my hardest to not let his narrow minded pig headedness about everything get to me._

"_Because life isn't always about survival Zack. Can't you see that?" I asked, displaying the scene behind me. "Not everything is always about the survival of the fittest. It's about finding yourself and doing something with your life. It's about finding love and meaning. Its about taking the time to open your heart and to set dreams and goals- whether you can achieve them or not. It's about having the freedom to express yourself- without always looking over your shoulder."_

"_You're dreaming Max," he told me. I rolled my eyes and huffed. Taking two giant steps toward him, I faced him and made sure he was looking in my eyes._

"_Maybe I am, but then tell me this: why did you come back and help us save Tinga's family?"_

_His jaw set hard again but he didn't back away from my stare. Instead he let out small breaths, which seemed like huffs. It was until he couldn't take it anymore that he looked away and took a few steps back._

"_I can't go any further with this Max. I'm done- im out." He told me finally. I gave him a nod, and sat back down in my original spot._

"_That's fine Zack, I'm not surprised."_

_He let out a huff and steadied his voice. "What is that supposed to mean?"_

"_Exactly what I said- I knew you wouldn't stick around when the trade off with Tinga came. It's not what you do. I learned that the first time I saw you again," I grumbled the last part._

"_I'm not the bad guy Max," he told me._

"_No you're jus the guy who doesn't give two shits about anyone." _

"_Don't give me that- I care. I care about all of you! I'm the one out here risking my life to try and protect you all- to keep you safe. I cant do that if you all don't listen to me!"_

"_That's just it!" I yelled, getting up and spinning around to look at him. "You don't have to do that Zack! No one is telling you to go on a 'save the X5's' mission, and no one is making you do anything. What's so wrong with staying in one place Zack? What's so wrong with staying here with me? Is it because of the dirty city or maybe the poor population? Is it the way you are treated here? Do you not like Original Cindy? Or is it Sketch? -"_

"_It's because you're here!" he finally blew. His words took a stab to my heart and I shut up._

"_You weigh me down Max. I can't stay here because everything in Seattle reminds me of you- and it makes me weak! I can't look after myself when you are around."_

_For a while after that we both didn't say anything. I ended up going back to sit down near the edge. I stared at the city and felt as if its beauty disappeared. Zack that finally broke the silence with his hands stuffed in his jean pockets. "I'm sorry Max- but I cant stick around."_

_I nodded. Tears were starting to pool in my eyes a bit and I prayed they wouldn't fall._

_He left within seconds after that, and I was once again left alone on the tower._

I guess it was when he came swinging in, to back me up with Tinga's trade, that I knew he was sorry or at least whatever I had said to him actually meant something.

"_What happened to not being able to do this?" I asked Zack as I beat up some of Manticore's backup._

"_I care too much about you to let you do this alone," he told me with his head in the game._

A quick look to his eyes that day made me see he was telling the truth and from there, it happened like I told Jondy and Syl.

The clock read 5:42 am. Looking up at him with loving eyes I smiled a bit.

"Happy Anniversary Zack," I whispered, looking up at him with a hand on his chest.

"Happy anniversary babe," he said back holding me close.

* * *

><p>We both ended up falling asleep for a few hours. It was funny how flashbacks started to come around.<p>

_Flashback #1_

_We stood at the bay in the middle of the night, just finishing our drive with Tinga's husband and kid, making sure they made it safely into Canada._

"_They aren't going to stop Max," Zack told me bitterly._

"_They're going to keep hunting us done, one by one," I agreed with him sadly._

"_No." he said sharply. "I'm not going to let them do anything to you like they did to Tinga and Brin!" He stared at me with determination in his tone._

_I nodded sadly and tried my hardest to give him a smile._

_Walking over to me, I accepted the hug Zack gave me, feeling content in his arms._

_Flashback #2_

"_Zack, why don't you want a family?" I asked him as we sat up at the space tower._

"_Its not that I don't want one Max," he said softly._

"_But you always seem to hate it if one of us tries or has one," I told him, thinking about Tinga._

"_That's because I know what having a family does to us- it makes us weak."_

"_So you think you'll never have one? You'll always be on the run?" I asked him._

"_I don't know," he said looking out at the city._

_I looked out at the view alongside him and kept my mouth shut. A hand slipped into mine and held it softly. Glancing down, I watched our hands intertwine. It felt so right, yet I was scared. Where was this going to take us?_

Waking up, I found I was alone. Hearing the shower running, I grabbed the sheet from around me and dragged it out of bed and into the bathroom. Zack was soaking in the steaming shower. I couldn't tell if he heard me come in, so instead of saying something, I just dropped the sheet and walked in the shower with him.

Sliding my hands up his chest from behind him, he turned back a bit and gave me a smile.

"Hi," I said softly as I stood behind him. Giving him light kisses to his back and shoulder I grinned.

"Hi," he replied turned around in my arms.

Giving me a kiss, I let my body melt against his. He was teasing me- nipping at my lips and pulling me closer against his body to create friction.

"Zack," I breathed as his mouth moved down to my neck.

"God Maxie," he breathed, "your so beautiful." He continued to kiss me wherever he could. It felt so good. I pulled his head back up to face me and kissed him hard. I wanted him. Bad.

Pushing me up against the tile wall, he slipped inside of me easily, filling me. We both let out a moan, enjoying the feeling. He thrusted against me gently at first. We stared at each other, enjoying the intimacy and what we were feeling. It wasn't until he kissed me again that everything started to unravel. It was like we both went crazy. Grabbing my other leg, he pulled it up, letting me wrap them around his waist and he pumped into me hard. My head went back and I arched my body in pleasure. His lips found my neck and he started to suck, bite and kiss.

My hands traveled from his shoulders to the back of his head, holding him against me as he continued to plunge into me.

"Zack," I let out. I was getting close. My inner walls contracted against him and he let out a breath, now thrusting even harder into me. It was like we were in a frenzy.

A few more thrusts from him, I couldn't take it anymore. My hands squeezed his shoulders and I came. As I started to calm down from the high, Zack climaxed hard inside me, holding my waist. The pleasure faded and he let me down from him, still panting hard.

"I think our anniversary is going pretty well so far," Zack smiled as I laughed.

"Mmm, very well," I agreed giving him a small kiss before turning towards the water.

I let the water fall on my hair and slide down my body with ease. We stayed in the shower for a while. It wasn't until we were both all wrinkly that we finally got out.

"So what's the plan for today?" I asked as I threw a shirt over my head.

"I don't know. No one is up yet," he said listening closely. "What would you like to do?"

"How about a walk?" I asked standing in front of him.

"Sounds amazing," he smirked and leaned down to kiss me.

We left a little while later, strolling down the streets of Seattle. Some would say that we were crazy. The streets were hectic and the police were all over. But we no longer had to worry. The chaos kept us shielded and the police weren't our enemy.

"What are you thinking about?" Zack asked, kissing my hand, which he held in his.

"Nothing," I said hiding my smile by turning my head.

"Oh, I don't believe that for a second," he said pulling me towards him.

I smiled like a schoolgirl as our chests touched. Giggling with anticipation, I wrapped my arms around his neck and waited to be kissed. It was perfect. Everything felt so perfect.

"It's our anniversary," I said still amazed.

"It is," he smiled at me.

"We made it a year," I told myself more than him. It still was so astonishing that after all of this…we finally made it. Its not like I had doubts of our relationship or didn't think it was going to make it, I was just kind of amazed that a year had really past between us.

"Hard to believe," he said with the grin still on his face. Im pretty sure it was permanently there.

We walked for a while, letting our hands swing between us.

"So I think Jondy and Zane are getting along pretty well…" I hinted at Zack.

"Yea, Zane seems to really care about her. Its funny how close they have gotten."

"What do you mean?" I asked stopping in front of him. I was curious about his tone.

"You really don't think I didn't know about their annual meet ups, did you?" Zack questioned with a raised eyebrow.

I bit my lip and held back my smile.

"Oh come on Maxie. I watched over all of you guys for years. You didn't think at one time I didn't find those two together?" he said lightly. "I thought you would know me better," he joked.

"Why didn't you say anything?" I asked.

"Because they wanted it to be a secret, or at least think it was. And even though I didn't approve, they looked truly happy."

"What else?" I asked him skeptically.

"Its not like they didn't follow directions. When and if I told them to move, they did. I didn't have a protester like you," he chuckled, kissing me on the nose.

"Hey, everything ended up just fine thank you," I grinned and continued to walk.

"So tell me this," Zack said hugging my waist from behind as we looked at some street marts, "are they together now? Or still dancing around the whole thing?"

I smirked up at him, "dancing around. Why, you thinking about playing cupid or something?" I asked jokingly.

"No," he chuckled putting his face beside mine, "I'll stick to my own relationship thanks."

I let out a laugh, sneaking a quick glance to him and then continued to shop.

"What about Krit and Syl?" he asked a few minutes later, kissing my shoulder.

"What about them?" I asked.

"They getting together any time soon?" he asked. "They always seemed cozy together," he claimed with furrowed eyebrows.

"Hope so," I replied, turning back to go home.

"We're lucky you know?" I said after a while. We walked back up the streets together in silence.

"Being together?" he asked.

"Yea," I said looking up at him. Thinking it over, we really were lucky. If Tinga hadn't been in trouble…if Manticore hadn't gone down…we wouldn't have been here.

He kissed my hand and let it go, moving his arm to snake around my shoulders.

* * *

><p>When we got home, Zane, Jondy, Syl and Krit were already up.<p>

"About time!" Krit commented from the couch as we walked in the door.

"Morning to you too," I said to Krit. He gave me a wink and wrapped his arm around Syl.

"So what's up? I asked the four while coming to sit with them. "How long you guys been awake?"

"Not too long," Jondy said with her head lying on Zane's chest. Both of them were lying on the floor playing with each other's hands.

I smiled at each couple and gave Zack a look as he went to sit at the other end of the sofa, away Krit and Syl.

"What did you guys do?" Syl asked.

"Took a walk," Zack said smirking at me. He could read what I was thinking like a book.

"That's nice," Jondy commented.

"Nice yes, but skipping out of story time, no," Syl said.

I rolled my eyes and looked at both couples again. They were so cute. I was glad they were happy.

"True," Jondy commented.

"I didn't skip out of story time," I explained to them.

"You did," Syl said.

"What's story time?" Zane asked from the floor.

"Syl and I wanted to know how her and Zack finally got together," Jondy explained to him.

"Ahh," he said sounding interested too.

"Sounds fascinating to me," Krit agreed.

"It is," Syl commented.

I rolled my eyes and blushed a bit as Zack shot me in an amused look.

"How far did you get in the story?" Zane wondered.

"They were just getting back to the Motel to see if Tinga's family was awake yet," Jondy replied.

"They kiss already?" Krit asked.

I rolled my eyes and brought my knees up to my chest, letting my forehead rest down on them to hide my embarrassment.

"Not that we know of," Syl said watching me.

"So, what happens next?" Jondy asks.

"We really doing this now?" I asked pulling my head up.

"What would be a better time and place rather than now?" Krit asked with a smirk on his face.

I huffed and placed my forehead back on my knees in embarrassment.

"Oh come on Maxie, your not a bad story teller…" Syl said trying to cheer me up a bit.

"Not helping Syl," I mumbled in-between my curled up body.

"Thought I would try," she giggled.

"Zack?" Jondy asked turning the attention to him. "Care to share your point of view?"

"Oh no," Zack said getting up from the couch. I lifted my head and gave him a pleading look. Maybe he would save me from all of them.

"I have some errands that need to get done," he announced to everyone. "Have fun," he whispered to me. Planting a quick kiss on my forehead, he walked back to the counter, grabbed the keys to his bike and was off to do whatever.

"Alright, come on," Jondy said after Zack shut the door.

"Out with it," Krit said impatiently after a few seconds.

The focus was turned on me and I sighed, beginning the story again.

"After getting back to the motel, we woke up Case and Charlie and then headed to Logan's. Logan supplied them with a fake passport and some cash to get over to the border of Canada and they left later that day. Zack ended up leaving- checking up on Manticore to see what their next plan of action was, and what the heck happened between Lydecker and the company."

"Ahh, this is where we come in," Krit commented. Syl hit him lightly on the chest and told him to be quiet.

"Yea, around here. Zack ended up coming back and reporting what he found. Lydecker really wasn't in control anymore. Madame X as they called her, had pushed him out of his position. So, with Logan's help, we decided to bust Tinga out of a private Manticore facility that night."

"But how did Lydecker find you?" Krit asked.

"Stop it," Syl whined, finding annoyance to his interruptions. I laughed as Krit complied and zipped his lips.

"Lydecker asked one of his buddies to make this radar device. It could show any X5 in a sectors radius. Unfortunately for me, I was in that sector they scanned."

"Okay, so what happened then?" Jondy asked. "And you better not interrupt," She threatened to Krit.

"Well, I was leaving the sector as Lydecker was coming after me, so it kind of worked out to be Manticore taking down their own company. Lydecker had no idea that the facility was there or even that Madame X was experimenting on Tinga."

"Really?" Zane commented. "Sorry!" he apologized as Jondy shot him a lethal look.

"Yea," I laughed, "Logan was keeping an over head look on Zack and I while we went to break in. It wasn't until Lydecker had pretty much got there that Logan warned us- he said something about the clouds above blocking the satellites. But anyways, Logan told us through comms that Lydecker was here and we needed to get out fast. Since Zack was still covering the perimeter, he ran off to take cover. I- on the other hand, was already inside and saw Tinga. She was hooked up to these wire tube things in a tank of water. I broke the glass and held her dead in my arms" I swallowed hard.

"I could hear Lydecker at the entrance saying something about the guards being some special ops of Manticore's. After that, he came in with his team and saw me on the floor holding Tinga in my arms."

I let out a breath remembering every detail. "The look on his face- it was like he lost a child of his own. It was sick to think that way, but he showed deep lost and concern. It was like he couldn't believe what he was seeing- like he truly cared. After that, he started to say something to me and I just lost it. I jumped up to attack him and his men shot me with those electricity things and I passed out."

"_I'm so sorry," A drunk Lydecker said to me as I woke up. "I never meant for it to happen this way," he continued. "You were my children- all of you. I cared for you and tried to show you how to live-"_

"_You trained us to kill," I growled.  
>"I trained you to survive- to be super soldiers," he corrected. He went on and on, almost as if he was explaining himself and his actions.<em>

"_You know, a team will probably be here in a few minutes," he slurred._

"_Then we need to get out of here," I told him pulling on the handcuffs._

"_What's the point anyways?" he asked. "We are dead one way or another."_

"_We can at least try," I said. Inside I was pleading. I didn't want to go back to Manticore. I didn't want to die like Tinga._

"_There's no point. They should be here any minute. I'm a dead man." He said._

"_I'm pretty fast," I told him, "Give me a shot."_

* * *

><p><em>Manticore guards stormed the motel a few minutes later as we left on the road to safety.<em>

_I knew exactly where Zack and Logan would be. Crashing the Jeep through the warehouse, they welcomed me with guns to my face._

"_Max!" Logan exclaimed._

"_Miss me?" I asked them as I got out._

"_Syl!" I exclaimed, coming to give her a hug._

"_Zane," I smiled, reaching up to give him a hug too._

"_Zack," I breathed wrapping my arms around him. If there was something I learned in those few seconds of thinking my life was about to end there, it would be to appreciate every hug and person I came in contact with._

"_I brought someone," I told them, walking to the back seat and opening the door. Out stepped Lydecker, and guns were once again raised._

"_He's okay," I told all of them._

"_What is he doing here Max?" Zack asked harshly._

"_He's here to help us," I explained._

_Before our leader could protest, I looked him in the eye. "Trust me," I said softly._

_Everyone stayed quiet as Lydecker tried to gain our trust. He said things that made us all almost believe him- He wanted to bring Manticore down, and told us he couldn't let this happen. Not only was he no longer in power, but he lost Tinga and was lied to about everything too. Everyone was upset hearing about our sister. Zack was angry while Syl and Krit were upset with grief. After taking some time to heal, we progressed forward with Lydecker's 'trust'. _

_I couldn't help but stare at him though. Donald Lydecker. He and I had actually shared something- we lost Tinga. I couldn't get over the look in his eyes when he saw Tinga. It was fueling him to help us and it drove him to drink. How was this happening?_

_Logan wheeled up to me as Lydecker was speaking. He gave me a nudge and I stood up, walking over to the other side of the platform._

"_What happened to you? I was practically shouting your name over comms. And Lydecker actually caught you?" he emphasized._

_My thoughts ran back to Tinga and everything I saw. I felt my arms get heavy and I bent my head down to look at them. They were empty yet they felt so full- it was like I could still feel her._

"_Max," Logan said trying to get my attention._

"_What?" I snapped angrily as I was having a hard time focusing. The feeling was just so real; I couldn't shake it._

_All eyes turned to me and I bowed my head turning away from Logan and going back to the group._

"_I need to get to a friend if we want access to the DNA lab," Lydecker said._

"_Like we would trust you," Krit commented._

"_Which is why I was going to say one of you should come with me," Lydecker added._

_I glanced back at my arms, holding them up to look at. Why was I feeling this?_

"_Max," Zack snapped disapprovingly. _

_I looked up from my arms and found all eyes on me. There was some concern in Zack's eyes, but it was shielded quickly as I continued to stare at him. Glancing at everyone else, I muttered an "I'll do it," and then walked off to get some air. _

_Trying to shake it off, I found the feeling was getting the best of me. The weight of her body, the way her head and neck were stretched out and turned._

"_Its Tinga isn't it?" A voice questioned to me. I was surprised it was Lydecker who said something._

_I furrowed my eyebrows, debating if I should be truthful with him. I looked back down at my arms. "Its like I can still feel the weight of her body against me."_

_Lydecker nodded. "It's a scary feeling."_

_We stayed silent for a while till he walked closer and handed me the keys. "We need to get going."_

"_Right," I said compartmentalizing my feelings. The mission needed my attention right now. That was supposed to be my main focus. Shifting everything inside me, I put on my game face and got in the car, driving wherever Lydecker told me to._

_We waited for a while. I was getting to be a bit skeptical if this 'friend' of his was really here._

"_I lost someone once," Lydecker shared as we waited. "She was someone I loved very much."_

"_Wife?" I asked._

"_No…just someone important to me."_

_I nodded. _

"_She reminds me of you," he said softly. "I think that is why I've always had a soft spot for you."_

_I kept my face forward._

"_Remember me sitting on your bed those late nights?" Lydecker continued. "I held your hands and kept them still as the shakes set in."_

_I swallowed hard. I did remember those nights. He stayed with me for a while. Many times he would sneak in with tryptofan for me to take and waited till the trembles stopped. When he would leave I remember Zack always rolling over to see if I was okay, never making a peep._

"_You have her eyes," he told me. This time, I turned towards him. My heart was beating hard in my chest. Was I her? Was I her clone?_

"_I have her DNA don't I?" I asked scared._

"_No," he said softly. I let out a breath and looked at him. "Nothing like that. I just made some changes and enhancements to your DNA."_

_Sitting there puzzled, I wondered what he meant. Was I different from all of the others?_

_A hand came up to my face and brushed some hair away from my eyes. Lydecker. I grabbed his wrist twisting it above his head and to his back._

"_Don't ever touch me again," I growled._

_He muttered an okay I let him go. A few awkward moments passed then he got out of the car. I watched as he approached a man, an empty gun in his hand. The so-called 'friend' took the bait, thinking it was a real gun and he was knocked out before I knew it. Lydecker stuffed him in his own trunk car and took his eye._

_Driving off, I sped the whole way back to the warehouse. I didn't want to be near Lydecker any longer._

_When we pulled in, I quickly hopped out of the car and towards the rest of the X5's. They all seemed to be busy planning._

"_Everything okay?" Jondy whispered to me as Zack and Krit went back to talking._

_I nodded and swallowed. No, everything was not okay. I was barely keeping it together. Between Tinga's death and Lydecker practically telling me I was his special little girl, I was not okay. In fact, I was far from it._

_Lydecker was looking at me and I suddenly felt sick. It was wrong- so wrong. I had the eyes of his so-called lover…_

_A crow interrupted everything. It cawed at us and we all got the chills. Flashbacks of one of the X5s shooting another hit us all. Someone died that day, and that someone was one of us. It was Zack that finally took out a gun and shot it- just like he once did before. The crow flew off and we were left in silence._

"_What was that all about?" Logan asked. We all turned to him knowing exactly what it meant and the symbol it carried. Death. That was when I couldn't take it any longer. I had to get away._

_Walking off the platform, I mumbled over my shoulder "I'm going to go grab some pizzas."_

_Everything was swallowing me whole. I felt so alone and in pain. Nothing seemed right, especially without my sister in the world._

_The smell of food seemed to cheer me up a bit. The best pizza in all of Seattle was tucked away in my car as I drove back to my family. It was weird to think a bunch of us were all in one place. It was the day I had been waiting for practically all my life and here it was, served to me on a platter. So why wasn't I happy?_

_I made sure to try and walk back inside with a better face. I put on a smile and carried in all of the boxes._

"_Food's here," I told them setting it all down._

"_How can you all eat at a time like this?" Logan wheeled up to me and asked._

"_We were trained to be super soldiers," I told him with a look that was supposed to mean something to him._

"_And super soldiers need food," Lydecker commented, sneaking up beside us._

"_Is everything all set?" I looked down to Logan. I tried my hardest to ignore that itch to run away I now got when Lydecker was around me. I felt…unsafe._

"_Yea, pretty much. All you have to do is go in and strategically place the C4 inside the lab. From there, you have about 2 minutes to get out and away from Manticore so we can blow it up."_

"_2 minutes shouldn't be too hard," I told them._

"_Never underestimate your enemy," Lydecker spoke. My eyes flickered and I felt that creepy sensation come over me again. Walking away from the two men, I grabbed some pizza and went to go look at the lab blueprints._

"_Got your head in the game soldier?" Zack asked coming around to my side._

"_Yea," I told him, my eyes showing another story._

"_You know the plan?" he asked a bit more quiet._

"_Yes," I said. "You and I will place the C4 here and here, while Krit and Syl will place them here and here," I told him, pointing to numerous places._

_Zack nodded and then continued to look at me. His stare was burning a hole in my skin._

"_Wanna get some air?" I finally asked him as I turned to look him in the eye._

"_Love some," he told me._

_I lead the way, knowing he was right behind me. We quickly left the warehouse and I felt safer already. Jumping up on the space tower, I let my mind rest in peace._

"_Everything okay Maxie?" Zack asked coming next to me to stand near the ledge. I took a few moments of silence, debating what I wanted to start with first._

"_I have Lydecker's wife's eyes," I stated "Or I guess I should say lover," I said, this time with bitterness and hurt lingering in my tone._

"_You're DNA…"_

"_No," I whispered cutting him off. I turned my body to look at him._

"_There is just something special about me I guess," I said shrugging. I held my arms around myself tighter._

"_What do you mean?" Zack asked cautiously._

"_He said he added and changed some things around. I am different from the rest," I said to Zack with tears in my eyes._

"_I feel sick." I whispered almost disgusted with myself._

_Zack's eyebrows furrowed as he embraced me in his arms. Kissing my head and holding me as tears slipped out of my eyes, he whispered "You are nothing like either one of them Maxie. Don't let anything that bastard says get you down."_

_I nodded at the uplifting words. They were more giving me peace of mind than comfort and I needed that._

_Puling away slightly, I felt a bit ashamed. In that moment, I actually had a hard time facing Zack's eyes._

"_I'm sorry for losing Tinga," I let out slowly. "She- umm…"_

_I swallowed hard and tried to focus on my words rather than what I was feeling. Why couldn't I just keep it together?_

"_Max," Zack said brushing some hair away and cupping my cheek to turn to look up at him._

"_That wasn't your fault. It's Manticores. And tonight Maxie, we are going to get them. You hear me? Tinga's death isn't going down without a cost."_

_I nodded, believing every single word. Hugging my body to him, I felt like this was it. It was a do or die mission. From here on out, everything would change. My head buried further into his shoulder and he cupped the back of my head, keeping me in his comfort._

"_I love you Max," he whispered and kissed my head.  
>"I love you too Zack," I confessed after a few seconds. Saying those words seemed right- they felt right, they sounded right. It just made sense.<em>

_Zack stiffened against me and I didn't know where to go from there. Both of us pulled away slightly._

"_You cant take those words back Maxie," he told me cautiously._

"_I don't want to take them back Zack," I said searching in his eyes. Did he want me to?_

"_We are going to be okay you know," he said almost as if he was trying to read my mind._

"_I know," I said with a small grin, "but that doesn't mean I love you any less."_

_His face brightened and a smile spread across his face. Lowering his head slowly, he took one last look in my eyes and kissed me._

_When our lips touched, it was like they melted together. I had never felt something so…mutual. It was weird how good it felt. It was like…perfection. When we pulled away, the hand that was holding my face, held mine on top of it. No words were spoken for a while. It was just us, mesmerized with each other's company._

"Damn," Syl breathed. "And you both pulled it together, long enough to kick Manticore's ass and hide it from us?"

"It took us a while to leave the space tower," I laughed, "but yea, we did."

"I'm proud of you girl," Jondy said. "Losing Tinga and dealing with a creepy Lydecker must have been hard."

I looked away and nodded, "yea it was."

"So then today is yours and Zack's anniversary…" Syl said.

"Yes it is," I beamed at her.

"Then we better get leaving," Syl said, getting up from the couch and pulling Krit with her.

"Where are you all going?" I asked them.

"Maybe OC's or Crash. Who knows yet? All that we do know is that we need to get out of this place and let you and Zacky boy have your night here." Syl said grabbing her stuff.

I let out a laugh and shook my head as Zane's eyebrows waggled.

"Have fun!" I yelled to them as they left our place, giving me a wave goodbye over their shoulders.

After shutting the door, I wasn't sure what to do. Zack was out- no idea where- and everyone else left. Settling on some TV, I swung over the back of the couch and sat down in the middle with the remote in my lap.

It was funny how we finally became official. I remember like it was yesterday…

We were at Crash with everyone, celebrating the success. Logan had told me Lydecker ran off into hiding. Although, he made sure that Eyes Only would be watching over him. OC and Syl were talking about who knows what, Sketchy was getting to know Krit and my relationship to both of them, and Herbal was talking with Zack at the bar.

"_You boys doing okay?" I asked, as the two seemed to be in a very animated conversation. Herbal nodded enthusiastically, informing me about their topic while Zack just stared at me with loving eyes._

"_Herbal!" Sketchy said calling him over. Herbal excused himself, but not before rambling to Zack with much liking._

"_I think you just made a new friend," I told him as I nodded to the bartender for another beer._

"_I guess I did," Zack laughed while watching me._

"_What?" I asked as I found him staring._

"_No more running," he said standing up a bit. I beamed at him. Manticore was really gone._

"_We did it," I cheered looking up at his eyes._

"_We did," he replied back, brushing my hair away and kissing me softly._

"_So does this mean we are official now?" I asked._

"_Official as in...?" Zack asked._

"_You know," I said feeling a tad bit uncomfortable. He let out a chuckle and kissed me again._

"_Cause you know, im cool with it if your cool with it," I pulled away smiling, feeling more and more confident with each kiss._

"_Oh, well then, I think I can be cool with it," he said wrapping his arms around my waist. Leaning myself against him, I smirked and felt on high. "Okay good. I'm glad we got that settled."_

"_Me too," he said going along with my light teasing and tone. We ended up laughing and kissing some more. All in all it was a good night._

* * *

><p>It was maybe an hour and a half later that Zack came back through the door calling out a hello.<p>

"In here," I told him tilting my head backwards.

"Hey," I smiled at him as he came near.

"Hi," he grinned giving me an upside-down kiss.

"Happy Anniversary," he said as we parted, swinging out a handful of red roses from behind his back.

I gasped as he placed them in my lap. Holding them in my hands, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. They were…unbelievable. Twisting my body around, I gazed up at him with a twinkle in my eyes. Where on earth did he get these? No place ever really sold beautiful flowers anymore. They are nearly impossible to find.

"Zack these are…" I said breathless, "stunning."

"I thought you might like them," he told me with a smirk on his face.

"Where is everyone?" he asked looking up to take a look around.

"Out," I told him, a smirk now displayed across my face. "After my story telling was done, they figured out it was our anniversary and said it was time to bounce."

Shedding his jacket on the chair, he came over to cuddle with me- wrapping his arm around my shoulder and tucking me in place at his side.

"Thank you," I said staring up at his eyes.

"You're welcome," he replied kissing me softly. After a few moments, I turned to him.

"You know, this doesn't make up for bailing on me earlier today," I joked.

"Oh really? I thought this would give me some partial credit," he smiled.

"Doesn't work like that," I beamed.

Zack fake/dramatically sighed and I laughed out loud. He was pretty funny when he was trying to be over theatrical.

As we caught each other's eye, we fell back in this intense stare again. It was like some weird thing where we just met and it all clicked. We were in sync with each other- neither one of us daring to break the link we shared.

Slowly, Zack's hands came around my waist, tugging me onto his lap. As I sat there, we continued to stare at each other. It was like I could see everything about him- inside and out. Our eyes searched each other one last time before our lips mashed together and we gave into this rush. Clothes went flying and profanities were said. It wasn't until late that night that we settled down and let our bodies rest.

We lay together on the couch panting like crazy. Sex, I learned, was explosive- or at least right then it was.

"That needs to happen more often," I panted to my boyfriend. God, that was amazing.

"Definitely," he told me, bringing my body closer to his.

After we both got enough energy, we took a shower and pulled on some new clothes.

"Come on," Zack said pulling my hand out of our bedroom and towards the door.

"Where are we going?" I asked, having a hard time pulling on my jacket as he continued to tug at my hand.

"I have a surprise," he smirked turning to face me.

I rolled my eyes and smiled a bit. Right before walking out of our apartment door, he came to a halt and turned to me.

"What?" I asked. Moving his hand to his back pocket, he pulled out a black blindfold.

"Zack," I whined.

"Please Maxie?" he asked. Looking into those sad eyes, I sighed and turned around. Its not like I could say no.

Imagining his smile, the dark fabric quickly covered my eyes and he kissed my cheek. He held my upper arms keeping me steady and made sure I didn't run into anything.

"Okay, we are taking my bike, so you think you can get on?" he asked letting go of me to get himself on.

"Yea," I said finding him. Moving my hands down from his shoulders to his waist. I got on the bike with ease, throwing one leg over and settling my face in his back.

"Let go!" I told him waiting to take off.

We sped off like a lightening bolt and with all of the loops and turns he made, I knew he had me; I lost track of where we were going and couldn't figure out his plan.

A while later we finally slowed to a stop. He put a hand on my hip to help steady me as I got off the bike and then climbed off it himself.

"Can I look now?" I asked.

"No," he said, opening something like a door. Scooping me up in his arms I was startled. I grabbed onto his neck tight.

"I got you," he said with a small chuckle. I loosened my grip a bit and continued to wonder where we were going. It seemed like we were climbing stairs, but I still wasn't sure.

Another door opened and he set me down.

"Okay," he told me.

I moved my hands to the back of my head, untying the blindfold. Gasping, I looked all around. Candles were lit all over, making our surroundings seem warm and magical.

"The first place where you finally saw me as Zack," he said walking into the large room.

We were at Zack's…or Sam's, at the time, apartment. It was a large space, a kitchen off to one side and a room for the bathroom at another end. Glancing around, I found the newspaper article where my barcode was printed by Vogelsang. I found the Jam Pony logo and a bunch of other things I picked up when I first tracked down Zack.

"I still can't believe you were Sam," I laughed as I stood in the middle of his so-called bedroom at the time.

"Well I couldn't just come out and say who I was to you," he said coming over to me. He picked up my hands holding them in his. "Plus, I had to be sure."

Nodding, I looked down at our hands and let out a laugh. They were perfect together.

"You know, growing up with you, I think I always had some sort of crush- whether I admitted it to myself or not," Zack laughed looking at our hands too.

"It was like everything I did or had us all do- I subconsciously made sure you weren't in too much of harms way; or if things got too bad, you were safe. It was funny. And as we continued to grow older, and went our separate ways, I began learning what those feelings meant. And I was scared," he said looking up at me. "I thought I was sick for loving my best friend, who I once called a sister. But I couldn't get away from it all. I couldn't get away from you. I couldn't once continue my day without thinking about you or dreaming what you could possibly be doing. I tried my hardest not to believe that you had moved on and weren't looking for me. So then after coming to look for you- and seeing you- you took my breath away. Whether it was in the eyes of Sam or Zack, you were you and I knew then, that I loved you."

I let out a small smile and a happy cry at the same time.

"When I was around you it was like I couldn't get enough of you- yet, I knew that at one point I would have to leave. We both would. And that took me a while to cope with. I had a hard time getting my head in the game. I had to face you as Sam, but in reality I was Zack. And when you found me- I was happy and proud of you. The way you looked at me and jumped into my arms. It was something so unexpected and loving."

He brushed a tear away from my cheek and I smiled at him. He was amazing.

"That night at the tracks," he swallowed, "after we beat up Manticore guards," he looked away. "I had the hardest time saying goodbye with you. I was harsh and cold- and I knew it was for the better. But seeing your face like that- I couldn't live with myself. So I came back, again and again when I said I was leaving and that I quit. But each time, you let me back in. You were mad and carried attitude," he laughed looking back up into my eyes, "but you still let me back in your heart."

"Because you have it," I told him.

"And now that I have it, and you, I never want to let them go. So…" he breathed. Getting down on one knee, he held my left hand in his warm grasp and stared up at me.

"Max Guevara, 452, will you marry me?"

My jaw dropped. I was in total shock as he opened up a small black box.

"Yes," I said with teary eyes.

He got up with a full-blown grin and swung me around in his arms. I let out a squeal and pulled away as he set me down.

"I love you," I laughed and cried at the same time. Wiping away my tears with his thumb, he gazed into my eyes and said the simplest most beautiful words I have ever heard.

"I love you too."

Our lips didn't separate for a while. Every emotion- happy, sad, joyful, loving- were all pulled into the kiss. There were so many thoughts and feelings flying around the room, I felt dizzy as we pulled away.

Pulling my left hand off his neck, he took it in his and slid on the diamond ring. It was gorgeous. Simple and so beautiful- 3 stones- one big diamond in the middle and one each beside it on a shiny silver band. It sparkled in the candlelight and I couldn't help but to stare at it. It fit perfectly.

I let out a laugh again. This was a dream- it had to be. Everything was so perfect. Life couldn't be this good could it?

Tilting my head, I stared at him. He was smiling at me, acting like he was the luckiest man in the world, when in reality it was me who was the luckiest. My hand came up, brushing some of his blond hair away from his eyes.

This wasn't a dream. He was mine and I was his. It was like that from the start, and no dream could change that.


	4. Chapter 4

Eventually, with much persuasion from Zack, I finally left our proposal spot. We blew out all of the candles together and shut the apartment door. Heading back on his bike, he took me to Crash. We pulled up at the back and quickly got off. Giving him a few kisses here and there, we eventually walked in. Zack and I stared at the enormous crowd from the staircase. It was crowded, that's for sure. He ended up spotting everyone near the pool table and we tried to make our way there. Zack, being the gentleman that he is, had me at his side as he lead us through the crowd, making sure every now and then that I was with him and no one was grabbing at me. As we made it in sight, OC popped up squealing in happiness. My face lit up and staring up at my now fiancée with a smile, he nodded towards my best friend and I took off running.

"Oh my god!" Original Cindy yelled in happiness, practically jumping up and down. She looked at my ring, my face, and my body posture. After all of those approved with ecstatic happiness, she grabbed me and hugged me tight. Zack came up to us, letting out a laugh and stuck close to my side.

"Zack," OC let out, "you da man." Pounding a fist with him. I let out a giggle and snuggled my body into his side.

"Whoa, what's going on here?" Syl asked coming up to us with a beer in her hand.

Putting up my left hand, her eyes went wide and she squealed like OC.

"Here we go," Zack whispered in my ear. I let out a laugh and hit his chest lightly.

"What the hell?" Jondy said as she grabbed my left hand and held it up.

"Zack! Nice man!" Zane said with a slap on his back.

"Oh my god," Syl said freaking out. Her and Jondy gave me a tight hug and said sweet things.

"Congrats my girl," Krit said giving me a hug.

"Thanks," I told him with a smile.

"Wow," Zane said giving me a hug next. I let out a laugh and went back to Zack. He kept an arm around my shoulder as I looped my arm around his waist. Kissing my temple he murmured to me softly. "I'll let you get to the girl talk."

Laughing, I pulled away and kissed his lips.

"Want anything?" he asked referring to the bar.

"Just a beer," I told him. Nodding he quickly dipped his head, giving me a lingering kiss that made me wanting more. I opened my eyes as he left, playfully glaring at him as he walked off with the guys to the bar.

_Evil man,_ I thought to myself as I bit my lip. Turning to the table full of excited girls and Herbal and Sketchy, I walked over and pulled up a seat.

"So!" Syl said, the first one to say anything.

"I'm getting married," I said bubbling with happiness. It wasn't so much the thought of getting married that was exciting, rather the thought of being able to call Zack mine forever and wearing the ring on my finger with honor and pleasure.

"How did this happen?" Jondy asked.

As I told them the entire story, the girls continued to awe and melt. Herbal, Sketchy, and I just rolled our eyes at the girls sinking into putty.

"I can't believe you are going to get married!" Syl said excitedly. I flashed them all a grin and looked down at my ring. I couldn't believe it either.

"Care to dance?" Zack asked coming up behind me with my beer. Looking up at him, I let my smile brighten and nodded. He set my drink on the table and took my hand. As we walked to the dance floor, Zane and Krit were passing us, shooting us a wink.

"Go ask your girls to dance," I told them with a nod back over at the table. They blushed slightly, and I let out a laugh. Boys will be boys.

Zack finally found us a spot to dance as the music turned into a slower song.

"Who knew Crash played slow songs," I said looking upward.

"I guess we are lucky then," Zack said staring down at me.

My eyes connected with him and I smiled. "I thought you didn't believe in luck."

He let out a laugh and shook his head. That was something I never let him live down. He gave me a swift kiss and put our foreheads together.

"Well I do now," he said.

We held each other close through the whole song. As I let my thoughts drift, I still found it to be unbelievable. Between Manticore and now, it was like life had gotten so much easier.

"What are you smiling about Maxie?" Zack asked.

"You," I said gazing up at him. Unfortunately before I could explain, Zane and Jondy came up to us.

"Heads up, your boy Logan is over there looking for you," Zane said. Jondy gave me a look, silently telling me to do something about it.

Sighing, I looked up at Zack, who seemed to be upset. Zane and Jondy went off farther in the dancing crowd, leaving us alone to deal with the problem.

"Don't," Zack said as I started to pull away.

"Zack," I said unsure. What was Logan here for tonight? Did he not understand I hated him at the moment?

"Max, just let him go. Tonight you're supposed to be all mine remember? It's supposed to be our day- you and me. Not Logan," he said.

I bit my lip knowing he was right. Today was our anniversary. We were supposed to be here celebrating with our friends, and to Zack, Logan didn't really count as a friend.

"Look," Zack said frustrated by my silence, "if you want to go, go." His hands went limp, leaving my hips and we stopped dancing. Standing in the middle of the dance floor, I realized the decision was up to me.

Glancing over at Logan again, I considered everything he put me through- what he put Zack and I through. Was I really going to choose Logan over Zack? Was I really going to do this?

"No," I told Zack looking up at him again. I slid my arms up his chest and back around his neck. Holding him tight I continued to sway to the music. "I want to stay here."

Zack looked at me surprised as he went to grasp my hips again. "You sure? Logan's right over there; He probably spotted you looking at him Maxie."

"Well then I guess he will just have to get the hint."

Zack continued to look surprised and glanced back over at Logan.

Lightly, I hit him on the chest, pulling his attention back to me. Smiling up at him, I couldn't help but laugh. It was funny how the small things could make Zack so happy. "Stop staring."

"Maxie," he said, his tone light and full of happiness.

"Its rude."

"Hey, im just keeping an eye out," he said trying to act all innocent.

"Right, cause im sure Krit, Syl, Jondy, Zane, **and** Original Cindy aren't already doing that…" I told him.

We both up from each other and glanced around. Jondy and Zane were off dancing at the side of dance floor, each turned so they had an eye at the table where Logan was sitting. Syl and Krit placed themselves strategically at bar watching Logan from a small distance while still appearing normal. And OC, on the other hand, was just flat out staring with a hand on her hip as she played some pool with Herbal and Sketchy.

Even with all eyes on Logan, he still took the bold move and stared at Zack and I.

"I told you," I said to Zack as we looked back at each other smirking.

Zack bent down for a kiss, making sure our lips parted so he could slip his tongue in for a taste. After battling tongues for a bit, we pulled away for air. Feeling a blush creep up on my cheeks, I put my head on his chest. When Zack kissed me like that, my insides felt like goo and my legs turned to jelly.

He let out a laugh as I leaned more of my weight against his body. Kissing my head, I muttered a soft, "jerk," as he knew what those kisses did to me.

* * *

><p>"He's still staring isn't he?" I asked as Zack and I continued to dance.<p>

Quickly looking up, Zack muttered a "yup," and held me against him tighter. I sighed at the situation. Logan isn't getting the hint. Doesn't he see OC glaring at him? Or my brothers and sister placed strategically watching him?

Zack let out a hard breath, his temper getting the best of him.

"Zack," I warned, popping my head up. "Hey," I said pushing my hand against his cheek to look at me.

"I know," he said reading my mind. "But if he keeps staring at you like he is Maxie…" Zack said leaving an open-ended threat.

I sighed. Logan had been trying to burn holes in my back for the last 10 minutes now by staring at me for so hard and long. Not only was it bothersome, but a bit creepy. Zack and I had tried to ignore it, but this man just didn't give up.

"Can I please go do something?" Jondy asked coming up to us with Zane in tow.

"Sorry, I tried to stop her," Zane said.

"I know what you mean," I told him as I gave a look over to Zack.

"Max, he's been staring for like the last 10 minutes," she said.

"I know," I told her.

"Maxie," Zack said with a hard-set jaw. He was now glaring at Logan with his hands in fists.

"Jondy, take him outside," I ordered about Zack. Nodding, she grabbed him with a fist full of shirt and dragged him outside.

"She'll calm him down," Zane said taking my hand and dancing with me.

"Yea," I said sadly.

"Cheer up, its your anniversary and engagement," he smiled.

My face brightened up a bit. It was.

"He's good to you, you know," Zane said looking at the door Zack exited through.

"Yea, he is," I smiled.

"I've never seen him so happy. He was so…uplifted when you guys arrived." Zane let out a laugh and twirled me. "When we were getting our drinks at the bar, he literally could not stop smiling."

I let out a laugh. It was odd to see Zack this happy- for all of us.

"You're his other half Max," Zane told me softly.

"Just like you are to Jondy," I said to him.

He was a bit puzzled at the quick turn of the situation.

"I see how you stare at her. It was the way Zack and I always used to stare at each other- it's the way we still stare at each other."

"What do you mean?" he asked dumbly.

"Oh come on," I laughed. He seriously didn't think I would buy that would he?

"The meet ups every once in a while? And the small touches you guys share? Just tell her already. She like you and you like her, so stop wasting your time and just be a man about it. Admit it already."

"Its not that easy," he told me.

"It is," I confirmed. He swallowed hard and spun me again.

"What if things go bad and everything is ruined? I don't want to lose my best friend over something like that…"

"Zane," I said making sure he looked me in the eye. "Give it a chance. Take the risk. You guys are perfect for each other."

"I know Max im just- im scared." He admitted.

"Don't be. It all works out if it's meant to be…and you're the kind of people that are meant to be together" I told him thinking everything over.

We danced with each other for a little while longer before Zack and Jondy returned.

"She's all yours," Zane said stepping away for Zack come in. Giving me a wink, he went off with Jondy to go dance again.

"Everything okay now?" I asked him.

He nodded and touched foreheads with mine.

"Come on," I told him, no longer feeling the dancing mood. Leading him through the crowd, I went back up the platform to join OC and my Jam Pony buddies.

"You two okay?" OC asked, looking at Zack's face. I could tell she felt bad for the guy.

"Yea, I think we might get out of here, you cool?" I asked her.

"'Course Boo. Just get you and your man out of here, Original Cindy can handle your Mr. Creepy eyes over there." She said disapprovingly.

"Thanks girl," I said giving her a quick hug. After waving to Herbal and Sketchy, I grabbed Zack's hand and left the club, not even once looking at Logan and where he sat.

* * *

><p>"Hey" I said to Zack as he got on his bike without a word.<p>

Standing in front of him, I swung his face to look at mine. Giving him a long and deep kiss, his body relaxed and his arms came out to pull me closer. The bike eventually got in our way of everything and I smiled in the kiss. I kind of forgot we were in public.

"Get on," he said with a twinkle in his eyes. _There's my Zack,_ I thought to myself. Following his directions, I swung a leg over his bike and held myself tight to him as we took off. When we got home, the clothes went flying and we quickly made it to the bedroom. Only a few times did our lips part from each other. The days' events were poured into our feelings and actions. I could tell how bothered Zack was over Logan- I could tell by the way he kissed me and felt. Not only were his kisses possessive but also his body was stiff and tense. Showing him love and ease, I tried my best to calm him down. He had nothing to be jealous or upset over. I was his, just as he was mine. Logan was to never come in between that. I continued to try and make him feel the happiness I was feeling. I rubbed his shoulders and pushed my body close against his.

By the time we finally laid down next to each other, we were both exhausted.

"I love you Maxie," he panted, pushing my hair away from my face.

I entwined my hand with his and kissed his palm. "I love you too baby."

Moving closer to him, I tilted my head up, kissing his neck.

"Zack, whatever happened at Crash…"

He looked down ready to say something, so I put my finger over his lip and cut to the chase of my spiel.

"You're mine, just like im yours. He can't do anything to change that," I told my fiancée as I referred to Logan. " I fell in love with you Zack. You're the man I want to be with the rest of my life- the one I want to wake up to- or the one I want to hold me close. You are the man I want to kiss and laugh with alongside my friends. I want you, not him."

He stared at me for a while. I wasn't sure what he was going to say. Was I wrong about what he was feeling? Maybe I was imagining it all…

His lips captured mine and my eyes fluttered shut. The kiss was sweet and loving. The way he tugged my lower back to come closer to him- I knew he wanted to kiss and cuddle.

Once we pulled away, his hand lingered around my face- cupping my neck while his thumb ran over my jawbone. After a few minutes, I snuggled my face into his neck and let my eyes close. It was funny how I sometimes got tired. Before my relationship with Zack, my body never once needed sleep, and now it came as a comfort. Within a few minutes, my breathing had evened out and I was asleep with Zack hugging me close.

* * *

><p>"Maxie...Max," a voice called. Groaning, I swatted at the noise and rolled over on my other side. A laugh was sounded and I raised my head a bit to see who it was.<p>

"I'm over here," Zack said, tugging at my shoulder for me to roll over.

"Hi," I said tiredly.

"Hey," he chirped giving me a quick kiss. "You have to get ready for work. It's a little past 9."

I let out a grunt and put a pillow over my head. Today was the type of day where I really didn't want to go to work.

"Come on," he said taking the pillow off my head.

"Can I just call in?" I practically pleaded with him.

He shook his head with a smirk fighting to win and handed me a cup of coffee.

Taking it, I sat up a bit and sipped the caffeine. Okay so maybe the day wasn't going to be too bad.

"What time did you get up?" I asked him as he smiled at me.

"A little while ago. I wanted to make sure our guests found a place to stay for the night and didn't want to wake you. OC took them all in."

"All of them?" I asked.

"All of them," he confirmed just as impressed as I was. As I fiddled with the sheet to wrap around my whole body, Zack watched me.

"You know I've seen you naked Maxie," he said as I held the sheet tight and got out of bed. It was time for a shower

I rolled my eyes and stopped walking.

"So if I was to drop it right here, right now, you wouldn't want to jump my bones?" I asked with attitude.

He let out a laugh and ran a hand through his hair.

"Exactly," I said and then finished making my way into the bathroom. After a nice long shower, I grabbed some clothes and headed in the kitchen for some breakfast.

"You know, I was thinking," I said to Zack, who was watching TV, as I made some toast.

"What if everyone was to stay here a little while longer? That way we could…"

"Max," Zack warned cutting off my idea.

I sighed and buttered the bread. I knew what he was going to say. It would be too risky- too dangerous. It was a stupid thought.

I stood there gloomy. The toast didn't look so good anymore.

My thoughts swirled around, buzzing to life. Why couldn't they just visit for a while longer? Would it be that risky? What's the worst that could happen?

"I know how great it's been to have them here, especially for you," he said coming to hug my waist from behind. "But we already took a big risk by them coming here."

"But Zack," I said turning in his arms to face him. "Manticore is gone, what do we have to worry about? And I was only thinking maybe a few more days, that's all…" I said with a sad face.

He sighed and kissed my forehead. He didn't like when I was unhappy but knew what was 'right' and 'wrong'.

"Max, just because Manticore is gone doesn't mean there still aren't people out there hunting us."

My shoulders fell, as I knew he was right. Laying my head down on his chest, I listened to his strong heartbeat. So much for hopes and dreams…

He kissed my head and hugged me tight. This was something Zack and I would always disagree on. He was big on safety while I was big on living.

"Will we ever get to be free?" I just asked out in the open.

"I don't know Maxie, I don't know," he sighed trying to comfort me best as possible. By the time I had to go to work, I was still a bit disappointed.

"Maxie," Zack called, jogging up to me as I left our building." I love you."

Letting a smile grow on my face, I quickly replied. "I love you too."

He gave me a quick kiss, sending me on my way. By that time, I was happy as a lark, smiling all the way into work.

"What's gotten into you?" Normal asked as I passed the front desk.

"Morning Normal," I chirped.

"Hey Boo," OC said lacing up her shoe.

"Hey," I said opening my locker.

"How was last night?" she asked with a small grin on her face.

"Amazing," I said, not even finding that to be the right word. "Hey, thanks for taking my brothers and sisters, Zack told me they stayed at your place for the night."

"No problem," she said waiting for me. "They were quite the excitement."

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow and she gave me the look of 'don't even ask'.

After I put my stuff away, OC and I headed over to Normal to start the day. He threw us our assignments. OC and I decided to take shift together today- it seemed like we haven't talked in a while.

While on our first few stops, OC told me about her crazy night with my siblings. Apparently they liked to go wild instead of sleep. They played cards, made themselves food, watched a few movies, and even stayed up gossiping with OC.

"You have a fun night with your boy?" OC asked.

"Yea, we did," I said with a blush. From there we talked about Logan and his issues.

"That boy just needs to learn you ain't his Boo," she told me as she got off her bike.

"But you would think he would take the hint…" I said still bothered by how stupid Logan was. Was he really that blind?

"Well, he's a guy…" she said stating it like it was the obvious. I let out a laugh and walked up the front steps of the house with her. As we waited my thoughts drifted back to this morning. Jondy, Syl, Krit, and Zane were all supposed to leave later tonight.

"What's wrong?" Original Cindy asked as my smile faded from my face.

"Nothing, "I shrugged. "Its just-…they're all supposed to be leaving tonight," I said referring to my family.

"They ain't stayin' for a few more days?" she asked.

"No, Zack feels like it still isn't safe enough."

"That boy," she said shaking her head as her lips closed together in a thin line. "He needs to stop worrying so much."

"No, he is right." I said sadly. "I just wish they could stay a bit longer you know? It was like I barely had time to hang them even though they've been here a few days."

"Well, time fly's when you're having fun," OC added.

I stuck my hands in my jacket pockets and waited for her to get a signature.

"Look on the bright side Boo, they will be there for your wedding, right?" she asked as we walked away.

My wedding? Oh gosh…

My face must have gone blank because OC took one look at me and laughed.

"Girl, you look like you just saw a ghost."

"I have to plan a wedding," I told her in crisis. I was not a girl to do this kind of thing. I could barely get myself dressed in the morning and now I have to plan a party?

"Max, you still have a while. Its not like you guys are in a rush," she said calming me down.

"Right," I said trying to pull myself together. Getting on my bike, I kicked up the stand and took off with my best friend.

"You don't think Zack will want a big wedding do you?" I asked her.

"Probably not, he's a pretty private guy," she reasoned.

"Do you think he will want something outdoors?" I asked.

"Max, maybe you should ask him," she said glancing at me.

"Right," I said finding that logical- he was my fiancée after all. We continued to ride and talk. She filled me in on any gossip I missed while I just filled her in on life. When we got back to Jam Pony, I ignored Normal's calls and went straight for the payphone. Calling our apartment, I got the answering machine. I listened to mine and Zack's voice play as I went to hang up the phone.

"Hello?" someone suddenly asked.

"Hello?" I asked back.

"Max?" Jondy asked.

"Oh Jondy," I said now knowing who it was. "What are you doin' at my place?" I asked.

"We all just came back to chill for a while."

"Oh, is Zack there?" I asked.

"No, sorry sis," she said. I sighed and leaned against the wall.

"What's with the sigh?"

"Did you know I have a wedding to plan?" I asked her.

"Yea, that's what happens when you get yourself hitched to a guy Maxie," she said.

We talked a little while longer and she calmed my fears a bit. Her and OC were right- Zack and I weren't in a rush, there was nothing I needed to be stressed about.

Getting back to work, I waited for the day to be over. Not only did I want to go home, but also I wanted to see the people _**at**_ home.

"Overtime people!" Normal said to a few of us.

"You've got to be kidding!" I complained as I was taking out my stuff from my locker.

"Does it look like im kidding?" he asked."Bip bip!" he exclaimed.

I shut my locker hard in anger to vent.

"Come on, we'll help guys," OC said, making Sketchy help Herbal and I.

We did the divide and conquer routine, which worked out pretty well. We each had about 4 packages and delivered them in no time.

"Thanks again guys, I owe you," I told them as I grabbed my stuff.

"Oh, don't worry Boo, we'll collect," OC said getting her own stuff together. I gave her a knuckle touch and was off to see my family.

* * *

><p>"Hey," I called walking into the apartment. It smelt really good in here.<p>

"Well Hello!" Syl said coming to greet me. She waited for me to put all my stuff down and then took my wrist. "If you would follow me…"

I noticed Zack also sitting on the couch and wondered what was going on. Syl gave me no explanation, instead just pushing me over to sit with Zack.

"What's going on?" I asked turning back to see if I could see Syl.

"I wouldn't do that if I were-"

"Turn back around!" Syl yelled.

I immediately swung back around and faced Zack.

"-you," he finished.

"What's going on?" I asked again.

"A surprise," he said, "for both of us."

"That's right, and you are going to love it," Zane said coming in to say hello to me. Giving me a kiss on the cheek, he snuck me a wink and then went to take Syl's place on guard.

Not wanting to take the chance of getting yelled at again, especially by Zane, I snuggled up with my fiancée.

"How was work?" he asked.

"Stupid overtime," I said rolling my eyes. Zack let out a laugh and kissed my head.

"How was your day?"

"The usual- not much has been going on since Manticore- but I think they found someone new to be in charge."

I looked at him alerted and he had a grim face. That was not good news. Turning to look at me, his posture and expression changed.

"Lets not worry about it now," he said.

Thinking it over, I wasn't sure if I wanted to let it go yet. I wanted to know more- what was going to happen? How long did we have? Were we going to run?

"Max," Zack said pulling me out of my thoughts. Nodding, I snuggled back into his chest. Tonight was supposed to be memorable. Manticore and those people didn't have to ruin it. We watched TV for a while till we heard a bang.

"I'm okay!" Krit yelled. Zack and I chuckled.

"What do you think they are doing in there?" I asked him.

"Not a clue," he said with a smile.

"Dinner is served," Syl said bouncing back in the room.

"Dinner," I said with an impressed voice. Laid out on the table was a candle light dinner. Pasta was the main dish, along with fruit, salad and garlic bread.

"You guys," I said in awe. It all looked so beautiful.

"This is our thank you for housing us," Jondy said, smiling as Zane pulled her in his arms.

I smiled at the pair. It was about time!

"Thank you," I said coming over to hug everyone. We all sat around the table eating the wonderful meal. We talked about our day and last night.

"Seriously, that was good," Krit laughed, thinking about his peanut and banana sandwich he had last night at OC's. We all laughed and switched to the next topic.

When dinner was over, we all brought our plates to the sink and did the dishes. It was kind of funny how easy it was to get in position. We set it up like an assembly line. Someone to grab the dishes, someone washing them, someone drying them, and two people to put them all away. When we were done, it was an odd feeling. I didn't know what time they were leaving and I was afraid to ask.

"Scary movie?" Zane asked. We all looked at each other and then ran for it. Krit, Jondy, Zack and I were the first ones to make it on the couch. We all laughed and shoved each other, trying to fix who would be on the couch.

"Who's making the popcorn?" I asked. Someone called out nose goes and Krit lost.

"Aw, come on guys," he said. Pulling himself off the couch, he pointed at his spot.

"Mine, I come back and it's gone, there will be some X5 sibling rivalry."

Still laughing, we all watched his spot, leaving it open, as Zane and Jondy got comfy on the floor.

I sat on Zack's lap to create more room on the couch (and its not like he minded anyways). Usually we weren't this cuddly or showed much PDA, but since it was just our family and they knew, it came easy to us.

Krit came back with a huge bowl of popcorn and we pressed play to the movie Zane put in. It was actually pretty scary. A lot of things popped up and at one point, it was so suspenseful Krit jumped and scared Syl, who was sitting on his lap and the popcorn, went flying.

"Krit!" she yelled, hitting him for scaring her.

We all brushed the popcorn off of us, chuckling in the process.

* * *

><p>"Oh come on!" I said complained towards the TV. Stupid cliffhanger ending. Did the guy die or not?<p>

Zane turned the lights back on for us and we all laughed. Popcorn was still everyone-on the couch, the floor, in Krit's hair…

"Very nice," Jondy giggled at Krit. Getting everything cleaned up, Zane gave Zack a look.

"We should get going," Zane said sadly after we were done.

Everyone looked at each other, and then at me. I bit my lip and tried sucking it up. I knew this was coming, so why was I having such a hard time? Everyone started to say goodbye to each other.

Syl came over to hug me first.

"Hey don't be sad, we will see each other at your guys' wedding!" she said, thinking it would cheer me up. After letting me go, Jondy grabbed my shoulders giving me a look and shook her head. That was the last thing that would soothe me and she knew it.

"I love you girl, call me if you need anything," she said.

I nodded and waited for the guys to say goodbye.

"Hey turn that frown upside down," Krit said hugging me.

"We'll see you soon sis," Zane said moving Krit out of the way and coming to hug me."Take care of our man for us," he also whispered.

"Always," I smiled as he pulled away.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Zack said coming to kiss me.

"Okay, be careful," I told him as he planted a kiss on my lips and then forehead. Smiling up at him, I tried to show him I would be okay. As the group called for Zack, he gave me a wink and went to take them all back home.

A few minutes after they left, I wasn't sure what to do with myself. I had an odd feeling my chest being all alone, but at the same time I couldn't seem to think about anything as my mind was quiet.

Deciding to take a bath, I turned on the water and waited for the tub to fill up. Slipping off my clothes, I slid into the warm bubbly comfort and laid my head back to relax. As I let the days' stress seep out of me, I felt my body begin to twitch a bit.

Pulling up my hand out of the water, I knew what was happening. The tremors were starting again.

Getting out of the water, I quickly pulled a towel around myself and went to find the bottle of tryptofan. Swallowing the pills dry, I walked back into our bedroom and sat on the bed. The tremors should stop soon, I thought to myself. Feeling them get more powerful instead, I laid on the bed, clutching the towel to my chest.

"_Oh Max," Lydecker said as he sat by my bed. My body shook with tremors and he held my hand._

"_They'll stop," he whispered reading the fear in my eyes. After a few minutes, true to his word, the shaking stopped._

"_The chemicals in your brain are imbalanced." He told me. "But with these, you can stop them." He showed me the unlabeled bottle of pills._

"_What are they?" I asked softly._

"_Tryptofan," he said looking at them. "A supplement in milk."_

_I looked at the bottle and then up at him. He was staring at me._

"_Go to sleep Max," he said sitting back in his chair. "I will be right here."_

_Stowing away the uneasy feeling I had, I followed his order_ _and closed my eyes, trying to conserve my energy for whatever came tomorrow._

I woke up gasping and still clutching the towel in my hands. It was just a dream- or a faded memory really. I slid up and out of bed, my body still weak and somewhat shaky. The tremors got worse. They always came in phases like that. I braced myself against the nightstand beside the bed. 10:26 am, it read. Slowly walking to the bathroom, I drained the bath water from last night and went to put on some clothes. When I was done, I popped a few more pills in my mouth and went to the kitchen to make some food.

I decided on a sandwich. It was probably the easiest thing, especially since I had work in a few.

My hands continued to shake as I tried to untwist the bread from its packaging and my body trembled the longer I stood.

This was ridiculous! I yelled in my head. Bracing my hands against the counter, I let out deep breaths, trying my hardest not to let my anger get the best of me. After a few seconds, I went back over to the bread, this time moving slowly. The twisty tie untied for me and I grabbed my slices of bread. From there, I opened the jars of peanut butter and jelly. Not too bad.

Sticking the knife in the jelly, my body shook a bit and I took a few breaths. Don't get discouraged; they will go away soon, I thought to myself.

I took a break after the jelly was on the bread. I leaned my weight back on my hands that braced against the counter and closed my eyes. Why did it have to be now? And why were they getting worse?

I allowed myself to wallow in self-pity for a few minutes before pulling myself back together and going back to my lunch. I started to smear the peanut butter on my bread, watching as my hands tremored.

"Maxie?" Zack called coming in the house. I looked over to him, knowing he would immediately be concerned. There was nothing I could do to hide it or stop it.

"Max?" he asked concerned as my body began to convulse again.

"It will stop," I said determinedly as I tried walking into our bedroom. I needed more tryptofan. My head suddenly felt like it was splitting in two. Pulling my hands up to my head, I quickly fell over letting out a call of pain.

"_Don't worry Max, I wont let anything happen to you," Lydecker whispered next to me. I was in the medical wing. There was an IV in my hand and I lay tucked in a bed. Lydecker had his hand in mine, holding it tenderly._

"_You're going to pull through," he said. "ill save you."_

I sat up with gasp. I was in Zack's arms shaking like a leaf. He was wide eyed and panicked, not having a clue what to do.

"They will stop," I muttered to Zack. I felt bad; he had never seen me like this. Usually I could hide it from him. Sometimes I would hide out at Logan's or stay with OC. I never wanted him to find out.

"Tell me what to do Max," he pleaded to me.

"Just hold me," I said looking up at him.

He nodded, hugging me close. Feeling his warmth and stability, I closed my eyes.

"_I'm okay Zack," I whispered to him as I found him staring at me after Lydecker left. He didn't say anything, rather, continued to watch me._

"_I'll be okay," I whispered to him again as we stared at each other in the eye._

When I woke up again I was laying on the couch, the tremors now fading, just showing in my hands.

"Morning," Zack said sitting near my feet.

"Hey," I said sliding up to face him. I wasn't sure what to say. I kept this from him for a reason.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"11:30," he said not looking at me.

"I have to get to work," I said tugging the blanket off me and starting to stand up. He quickly grabbed my wrist, pulling me back.

"Max, you're not well. You can't honestly think you are going in," he said in a controlling voice.  
>"I'm fine," I told him, slowly meeting his eyes. "I'm sorry I scared you," I said moving my shaky hand up to his face. He visibly sighed and put his stable hand on top of mine.<p>

"Did everyone get home okay?" I asked.

"Yea," he said softly, still watching me.

"Good," I smiled, trying softly to pull my hand and body away. I needed to get to work. I was not going to lose my job.

"Max, you shouldn't go," Zack said getting up with me.

"I can't lose my job Zack," I told him walking to get my stuff. His jaw set and he stood in the middle of the room.

"Look," I said coming over to him. "I'm fine right now. I'll have OC go on runs with me today and if I get worse I will call you," I tried bargaining.

"I can't let anything happen to you Maxie," he said running a hand through my hair.

"Nothing will," I said giving him a small smile. Kissing him, I made sure to show my confidence. I was going to be fine-hopefully.

"Max!" Zack called still standing there as I opened the front door. Turning, I caught the bottle of tryptofan he threw at me. Nodding, I stuck it in my bag and was off to Jam Pony.

* * *

><p>"You're late," Normal called to me as I rolled in with my bike.<p>

"Doctor's appointment," I called over my shoulder as I headed to my locker.

"You okay Boo?" OC asked me as my hands shook against the lock on my locker comb.

I stayed silent and she caught on. "It's happening again isn't it?"

I nodded and let her take the lock and key from my hands to open my locker.

'Thanks," I whispered to her. She nodded and waited for me to go on the next run with her.

"Zack found out," I said as we left Jam Pony to go to our address. She stayed silent and let me continue. "I was still getting over the shakes when he came home. I ended up collapsing in front of him."

"Boo, maybe it was time to tell him, they're getting worse," she said. I kept my eyes down.

"He was scared, terrified really," I said.

"He has a right to be," she justified.

"I just- I don't want to mess up what we have you know?" I asked her.

"Max, you two are getting married. There is nothing else you can really screw up."

From there, our conversation came to an end as we walked up the steps to a house and delivered a package.

After delivering about two more packages, the seizers began to take over again.

"Max," OC said concerned. We quickly walked off to the side of the building watching as my body convulsed.

"Tryptofan," I said pointing to my bag. OC nodded, getting out the pills. I popped about three into my mouth and waited for them to stop again. My head started to pound again. Bringing my hands up to my head, I tried my hardest to not let out a cry of pain. My head literally felt like it was splitting in two.

"What can I do girl?" she asked as I slid down to the ground in pain.

"Can you call Zack?" I asked, finding I was bad again.

She quickly nodded and looked around for a cell phone. "Max, I got to go use a payphone," she said worried about me.

"I'm okay, go." I told her. She nodded, running off to call Zack. Leaving me in an alleyway, I waited for her to come back. My body became weaker and I found myself curling up in a ball and falling into blackness.

"_Max," Lydecker called. "Max. Open your eyes Max," he commanded softly while rubbing my forehead gently._

"_Wha-?" I asked groggily._

"_We fixed you Max, just like I promised." He said._

"_What did you do to me?" I asked trying to fight the waves of sleepiness that came over me._

"_Your genes are special Max. They are so special." He told me before my eyes finally fluttered closed._

I woke up to OC shaking me awake. "Max, come on, wake up girl," she said.

"OC?" I asked groggily.

"Yea, its me," she said pulling me up. "Oh god Max," she said looking at me.

"What?" I asked. Touching the side of my face, I pulled some hair back and felt something warm. Looking at my hand I found blood.

OC pulled out a tissue and handed it to me, "your nose."

Putting a hand up to my nose, I felt all the blood and went wide-eyed. What was going on? OC helped me wipe off most of the blood and pulled me up to stand.

"I called Zack, it went to your guys' answering machine, so I left a message telling him to meet us at Jam Pony. You think you can make it there?" she asked still holding onto my elbow. I nodded and popped two more tryptofan before getting on my bike.

When we got back to headquarters, Normal shot us orders and OC quickly bit him a new one, telling him a 'not now'. She guided me to the bathroom, wetting some paper towel and getting the rest of the dried blood off my face.

"You look as good as new," she said with a small smile.

"Thanks," I told her weakly.

We went back out to the main area and waited for Zack. He came within a few minutes, in his leather jacket and dark blue jeans, looking as fine as ever.

"Max," he said spotting me.

"Hey," I said tiredly.

"It happened again?" he asked me and then looked to OC.

"Yea," I said not looking at him. I felt OC glaring at me, which made Zack look down at me.

"Can we go home now?" I asked.

"Yea, come on," he said guiding me along.

"And where do you think you are going?" Normal asked as we passed the front desk.

I held onto Zack tight as he stiffened, ready to say something.

"She's not feeling well Normal. Original Cindy's got her shift," OC said stepping towards the desk. I shot her a thankful look and she gave me the 'I have to tell Zack the whole story' look back.

"You're lucky we aren't very busy today missy," Normal said to me, accepting the change.

Zack and I walked off, thanking OC again. When we got home he quickly went into the 'take care of Max' mode. He helped me take of my hat, my bag, and even carried me up to our apartment.

"Zack, I can do it," I said taking off my jacket and shoes. He backed off a bit, knowing I wanted a bit of independence. After that, he dragged me to the bedroom. My head hit the pillow and let out a sigh of happiness. It was nice and cold against my hot head.

"What happened today Maxie?" he asked facing me.

I turned my head, observing his facial expression. He seemed worried and scared. But there was also this showing of strength somewhere inside of him.

"OC and I did packages together today," I said softly. "And after about the third one, the seizers came back."

I turned my head, no longer looking at him. His arm came around my stomach, resting there as his thumb rubbed comforting circles on my hipbone.

"They got pretty bad," I said with furrowed eyebrows. "My headache came back too."

He continued to stare at me, an elbow propped up on the pillow to support his head on his hand.

"So I had her call you. She needed to go use the payphone so she left for not even 5 minutes," I told him. "I must have passed out because when I came to, she was shaking me awake."

"This has happened before hasn't it," he guessed. Looking away again, I nodded. "A few times, they get pretty bad each time, but this has been the worst of it so far."

"Why didn't you tell me Max?' he asked. I glanced back at him again.

"I didn't want you to see me like this- so weak and vulnerable. I can take care of myself, its just sometimes…it's a bit difficult."

"You're not weak when you're like this," he said staring into my eyes. Switching topics, he put up his 'in charge' face. "How bad have these progressed? Any other symptoms or things I should know about? When did they start?"

"You know when they started Zack," I said sadly.

"Back at Manticore," he sighed. I gave him a look of confirmation and then answered the rest of his questions.

"They've progressed slowly. It only used to be just the seizures, which went away within a few minutes of taking the tryptofan. Now they have progressed into seizures, which take maybe 10 minutes to go away with the supplement."

"Headache too right?" he asked in confirmation.

I nodded, "headache usually comes around too, that progressed more as I got older though. Now they are progressing into blackouts and nosebleeds."

He stared at me. "Nosebleeds?"

I swallowed hard, "it just happened today."

We watched each other for a while, neither of us breaking the silence. I knew he was worried- so many thoughts must have been going around in his head. I cuddled next to him, trying to comfort him the best I could. I didn't want him to worry- I would be fine.

"Go to sleep Max," he said softly as my eyes drifted closed. Swiftly opening them, I shook my head a bit.

"No, im okay."

"Sleep," he commanded softly, kissing my forehead and holding me close. My eyes fluttered closed after that and I was off to dreamland.


	5. Chapter 5

"_You're special Max," Lydecker's voice echoed._ The scene switched in my head, back to the night where we were going to take down Manticore. Lydecker and I were sitting in the car.

"_I lost someone once," Lydecker shared as we waited. "She was someone I loved very much."_

"_She reminds me of you," he said softly…_

The scene skips a bit and I hear his voice again. _"Remember me sitting on your bed those late nights?" Lydecker continued. "I held your hands and kept them still as the shakes set in." _

My head turns against the pillow and my hands ball into nervous fists.

"_I have her DNA don't I?" I asked scared._

"_No," he said softly. I let out a breath and looked at him. "Nothing like that. I just made some changes and enhancements to your DNA."_

…_Lydecker's hand, brushing some hair away from my eyes…_

I wake up with a start, gasping for breath. It's always about Lydecker.

"Hey," Zack said waking up now alert and beside me. Ignoring his touches and calls to me, my thoughts wandered to something. Maybe that was the reason I was like this- why I had such bad seizures- because I was different. I was more enhanced in my DNA.

"Max," Zack called out more stern. I turned to look at him and he ran his eyes over my body trying to figure out what was wrong.

The sudden emotion of wanting to cry took me over and I tried my hardest not to shed some tears at the random moment.

Wrapping an arm around me, he held me, not sure what to say. I laid back in bed, planting my face in his chest. What was going to happen to me? What was in my DNA?

Zack continuously rubbed my back and kissed my head. It was his way of comforting me and I loved it. We lay there for a while, just lost in what was happening.

"I love you Maxie," he murmured against the top of my head.

"I love you too Zack," I said still cuddled against his ready to fall back asleep. When I woke up again, Zack was still rubbing my back and staring out into space thinking.

"Hey," I said getting his attention. Glancing down at me, he gave a small smile.

"Hey you. Feeling better?" he asked.

"Much," I said kissing him. "Lets go eat?" I asked pulling away.

"Max, you think that a good idea?" he asked.

"I'm okay now. They come and go. They don't last very long either," I told him, showing he didn't have to worry. He looked at me skeptical and I pulled him out of bed.

"Come on, im fine."

Dragging him to the kitchen, I put on a pot of water to boil. I grabbed a box of noodles, a jar of tomato sauce and hunched my shoulders forward.

"Would you stop?" I asked facing the stove. 'You have that look on your face. This is why I kept this from you," I told him.

Slowly turning to face him, I braced myself for a fight.

"Max, im just trying to fix this," he replied.

"There are some things you just can't fix," I told him. "Besides, I don't need to be fixed."

"You can't honestly think that," he said crossing his arms.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked a bit offended.

"Max, you just had another seizure and blackout. You really think we are going to just ignore this- that I am going to ignore this?" he said with a tone becoming more and more stern.

"It happens Zack, get over it," I said with narrowed eyes. I didn't need to be fixed nor wanted it. When the seizures came, they came. I dealt with them accordingly.

"Right, I'll just ignore the problem like you," he snapped.

"Its not a problem!" I yelled at him. "Its apart of my life. Sure it's an annoyance but there is nothing anyone can do."

"Is that what you think Max? That there is no one to help you? Max, we can find someone…" he said coming to comfort me. Backing away I stepped out of his touch.

"No, that's not what I want. Stop trying to fix me Zack, im fine."

"No. You're not! Max" he said frustrated. Looking away, the feeling of hurt crept over me.

"I think I should stay at OC's tonight," I said softly, slipping out of the kitchen and to our bedroom.

Packing a quick over night bag, I slipped a few pills of tryptofan in my pocket and went to go get my shoes to leave. Zack was still in his same spot with the same face- frustration and anger. Not even saying a goodbye, I grabbed my keys to Ninja and left.

When I got to Original Cindy's, I knocked softly on the door softly, waiting for her to answer.

"Hey girl," she said a bit surprised. Reading my hurt face, she quickly opened the door wider and gave me a hug.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Zack," I sighed as I walked in the apartment. "We had a fight about my seizures."

"What did he say?" she asked.

"He said it was a problem and wanted to fix it. I told him I didn't need to be fixed, it was just how I was built by Manticore."

"And?' she asked sitting across from me.

"He kept pushing, telling me we could go find help and see what's out there…" tears welled up in my eyes, "I don't want to be fixed, I don't want anymore help from anyone, especially Manticore."

"Oh Sugar," she said coming to sit on the couch and hug me. I sat there and cried in her arms for a while. My heart clenched at the thought of Zack not accepting this. It was almost like I had lost him.

OC gave me a place to sleep and made sure to remind me that this place was my home too. Smiling a bit, I couldn't thank her enough. She was the one thing in my life that was constant. I would die for this girl.

After making some food for the two of us, I cleaned up and pushed Original Cindy out the door to head over to Crash. As I was left with the quiet of the apartment and the stillness of the room, I stared at my engagement ring. There it sat on my left hand ring finger, sparkling against the candlelight. My thoughts went back over all of our memories together- how he proposed, how I was laughing and crying as I said my answer; how we danced at Crash together that night, the way we cuddled with each other at night. But then they went over today's events. How his face was dead set on changing me- the way his hand was on his hip in a disproving way; the way his jaw set hard and his body was ridged. Its funny how the bad memories took over the good.

I went to bed, having a dreamless sleep. When I woke up the next morning, the smell of coffee hit my nose and I sat up. Remembering where I was, my heart dropped and everything felt a bit more glum.

"Hey sleeping beauty," OC greeted me as she held her own cup of coffee in her hand.

"Hey," I smiled still waking up. "How was crash last night?" I asked her while pouring me a cup of brown liquid.

"Boring," she complained. "Logan was there," she told me.

Looking up at her, I waited for details.

"He told me to tell you he was truly sorry and wanted you to call him," she said with skepticism in her voice.

I looked back down to what I was doing and nodded.

"Maybe I will give him a call," I told her.

"Boo," she said disapprovingly. " I know you are upset with your man right now, but do you think that's a good idea? All Logan has been doin' is causin' trouble."

I shrugged my shoulders. Maybe it wasn't the best idea…

She sighed and stepped away from the window. "Come on, we have to get ready for work."

Nodding, I let her take the shower first, as I stood near the window where she once was.

I missed Zack. It was weird waking up and going to bed without him there. My heart felt heavier and my mood was in the dumps. Why did I have to have those stupid seizures? Why did Zack have o see? I should have gone to OC's that night.

OC got out of the shower, hollering it was my turn. Setting my coffee down on the table, I went into the bathroom getting my shower all ready. It was unfair that Manticore did this- that Lydecker did. Why did we have to be freaks? What did we ever do to them?

Standing in the shower, I let my tears mix with the falling water.

I lost him…I lost Zack…

"Boo, come on, we are going to be late," OC said knocking on the bathroom door. Pulling my emotions and myself together, I shouted "coming!" and hurrily got ready for work.

We left her place in a hurry, not wanting to hear Normal's comments.

"Look at you two, walking in on time!" he cheered.

"What's with you?" Original Cindy asked.

"Normal has a girl," Sketchy said coming up to us.

"Great," I huffed, walking over to my locker.

"What's with her?" Sketchy asked OC.

"Fight with her man," OC said and went to go get her stuff.

"Wanna do runs together today?" OC asked me.

"Nah, I think im going to just go on my own today."

"Alright," she said looking at me.

Shutting my locker, I walked to the front waiting for a package.

My runs were easy. I got them done a lot quicker than usual. When I came back to Jam Pony, Normal was actually congratulating me.

"This is how it gets done people," he claimed. "Shut up Normal," I said and waited to do some overtime.

"You want overtime?" he asked me. As I clarified, I noticed how nice he actually looked today.

"You have a date tonight or something?"

"Actually, yes, I do," he boasted.

"Nice," I commented and then held my hand out for the next package. After giving me a few more, I hopped on my bike and was off. By the time I got to Jam Pony, Normal was closing up. Only a few people were still hanging around Jam Pony as I gathered my stuff to leave.

"Night Normal," I called over my shoulder and then headed back to OC's

"Hey, im back," I called as I walked into her apartment.

"Hey Boo!" she hollered. Setting my stuff down I went to go look for her.

"Come on, go get ready," she said.

"Ready for what?" I questioned. She gave me a look. "Were you not listening to anything we were planning at lunch? Meet at Crash- celebrate Herbal's new job…"

"Herbal's leaving?" I asked.

"Max, what were you doing at lunch?" OC questioned.

I looked away, feeling guilty. Practically the whole lunch break I was thinking about Zack.

"Look, come on, you have to get ready. We have to be there in 10." She told me continuing her own routine.

Nodding, I headed off to her closet to find something to wear. Putting on a nice black tank top, a pair of dark skinny jeans and some makeup, I grabbed my leather jacket, slipped on some short-heeled boots and walked back out the door with OC.

* * *

><p>"Congrats Herbal," I said walking over and giving him a hug.<p>

"Why thank ya Max," he said in his heavy accent.

We all sat and talked for a while with a pitcher of beer next to us. I was actually starting to have a bit of pager went off and I glanced down to look at it.

CALL ME WHEN U GET THIS- UR SIS

"I got to take this," I announced to everyone. "Its not who you think," I whispered to OC as she gave me a very disproving look.

I made my way to the payphone and called the number on my pager.

"Hello?" I asked as someone picked up the phone.

"What the hell Max!" Jondy yelled at me.

"Jondy?" I asked against all of the noise at Crash.

"Yes Jondy! What the hell, why didn't you tell us about your seizures?" she yelled at me.

"How do you know…Zack," I said angrily.

"Zack called Zane asking him what to do. You two got in a fight? Max, what is happening?" she asked.

I swallowed hard. I was feeling so many things at that moment. Anger towards Zack, guilt towards Jondy and the others, sadness thinking about Zack, and so much more.

"Who else knows?" I asked.

"As of right now, Just Zane and I, but I wouldn't be surprised if word spread fast."

I shut my eyes and rubbed my forehead, I didn't want anyone to know.

"You can't tell anyone," I told her.

"Maxie," she sighed. "Why didn't you come to us- why didn't you tell Zack? Or me?" she asked hurt.

"Jond," I sighed using her nickname, "there is nothing you can do. I didn't want you to worry. And it's not as bad as Zack makes it out to be."

"Max," she sighed again.

"Can you just- please tell Zane to keep this to himself. I know he is just as protective as Zack but I can handle this myself."

"I'll try," she bargained, "but you have to fill me in. I'm not letting you get off like this."

"Jond," I whined.

"If not me, then Zack," she added. I closed my eyes again. How was this going to play out?

"I'll call you later and fill you in." I told her and then hung up. Jondy was stubborn. We both were.

I walked back to the group announcing I was tired. I gave Herbal another hug telling him how happy I was for him and said goodnight to OC and Sketchy. Walking back to OC's, I took the long way back, telling myself the walk would do me some good- maybe clear my head a bit. It actually didn't do much. I was still just as sad and preoccupied when I got to Original Cindy's apartment. Pulling out the key to her place from my purse, I looked up at found Zack waiting outside her door.

"What are you doing here?" I questioned.

"We should talk," he said facing me. He had his hands in his jean pockets and his leather jacket on. Taking him in again, my mind flashed back to our fight.

"There's nothing else to say…" I said moving past him to unlock the door.

"There's a ton Max and you know it," he rebutted.

"Let go of the door Zack," I told him. I wanted to shut it so badly and just forget about this. Forget about what happened, forget Jondy's call, forget that Zane knew…just forget everything.

"You can't run from this Maxie," he said softly.

"God, what do you want from me Zack?" I asked. "There is no answer for what happened. I had a weak moment. I don't want nor need to be fixed. Zane and Jondy now know, and im sure Syl and Krit will soon too. Zack, you got what you wanted. The news was found out and traveled."

"You think that's what I wanted Maxie?" He asked forcefully. I continued to look away.

"I just want you to be okay. I don't want to risk losing you or finding you hurt. I couldn't live with myself if you were gone Max," he told me.

Tears came to my eyes and I bit my lip.

"I can't just stand back and watch you go through this." He said softly as he stepped in front of me.

"Its not some curable disease Zack," I said in a normal tone. "It was just how I was built." I said turning my head to look back up at him.

He stared into my eyes, reading into my soul. I didn't know what else there could be to say. We were at the place where we would agree to disagree. My thoughts didn't continue much longer as he quickly pulled his lips against mine, bringing his hand up to my cheek.

The way he tasted, felt, and smelled all made my body crave him more. I leaned into him, enjoying his lips against mine.

"I missed you," I confessed as we parted.

"I missed you too," he told me, a hand still on my cheek. "Come home with me," he pleaded.

I looked away, unsure if it was such a great idea. With everything that happened, maybe more space and thinking time was better for us…

"Maxie," he said calling me back to attention. "Come home."

"Not tonight," I told him stepping out of his arms.

"Max," he said a tad hurt.

"Its probably not a good idea yet anyways Zack. I mean look at us. We didn't get anything solved. We-"

"We can get through it," he told me.

I sighed, internally debating with myself.

"Please Max," he begged again. Nodding, I had him come in for a sec to get my things together.

After getting everything, Zack wrapped his arm around me and we walked home together. It was odd to have him beside me again. Its not that I felt awkward, I just felt like something was missing.

We ended up talking everything out. I told him about everything I had been dreaming about, when the tremors started, and everything else. He patiently listened, sometimes pulling a face. At times I could tell he wanted to cut in and make some kind of comment, but he held it back and waited for me to finish.

"I just worry about you," he said after I was done. "I love you too much to let you go, understand?" he questioned.

I nodded, leaning against him now. "I know, I love you too."

I looked up at him. "And you wont lose me. They just get bad sometimes." Pulling up a bit, I kissed him, waiting to get lost in the passion.

Like I thought, one thing led to another and we called it a night. Zack laid beside me, holding me close. With him, I couldn't stop thinking, maybe everything will be okay.

_**A/N: Sorry for the quick ending, I had to wrap up everything together so I could work on some other stories.**_


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